Turncoats hold key in Odisha bypoll
BIJEPUR: A marigold garland around her neck, Rita Sahu walked through the bylanes of Kevad village in Bijepur assembly constituency limits last Saturday. The 46-year-old barely spoke, but when she did, leaders and activists of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) kept a close watch. Sahu is BJD’S candidate for the February 24 Bijepur assembly bypoll, where the stakes are apparently higher than a single seat.
“The real fight here is the proxy war between chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heavyweight and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” said Bipin Meher from Bijepur’s Barpali block. “The winner will hype it as a pointer to what is coming in the next assembly polls,” he added.
Sahu’s husband, Subal Sahu, a three-time Congress MLA from Bijepur in western Odisha’s Bargarh district, died of cancer last August, necessitating the bypoll. Barely months later, the CM chose her as the BJD candidate for the seat. Her switch to the BJD triggered a BJP counter. Bijepur’s BJD MLA from 2000 to 2004, Ashok Panigrahi, whom many spoke of as the front runner for the party ticket, joined the BJP in October last year.
Panigrahi, 60, was denied the BJD ticket from Bijepur in 2014 and contested as an independent. He lost, but the BJD candidate lost too because of a vote split. All talk of a patch up fizzled out when the CM picked Sahu.
In contrast with Sahu’s rally, and several kilometres away the
same day, Panigrahi met voters in Kothamal village and accused the BJD of embezzling money meant for housing schemes.
More than two dozen senior BJD leaders have descended on the region, around 375km from state capital Bhubaneswar, since last week. The BJP too has lined up a host of high-profile leaders, including Union minister Smriti Irani, for the campaign.
The BJD has a near-invincible record in bypolls since 2000, but the BJP’S win in the zila parishad elections last year triggered a buzz around Bijepur. In Bargarh district, the BJP won 25 of the 34 zila parishad zones, while in Bijepur it won two of the three zones.
Buoyed by these results, the BJP, which won just 10 assembly seats in the 2014 assembly elections, has mounted a sustained campaign to oust the BJD.
Caste equations have never had an impact in Bijepur, where OBCS constitute more than 70% of the 225,000 voters, and so turncoats are expected to be the real influencers. The BJD has reaped a rich harvest of turncoats from BJP and Congress. The ruling party has inducted BJP district president, Narayan Sahu, and Congress chairperson and vicechairperson of Barpali notified area council. The Congress, which suffered desertions in the run-up to the bypoll, has picked senior party leader Pranay Sahu as its candidate.
At Gopeipali village of Barpali block, sarpanch Dambarudhar Bisoi was the first among Subal Sahu loyalists to shift allegiance from the Congress to the BJD. “When he (Sahu) died, we thought it’s better to go with BJD as some development work can be done,” said Bisoi.
The BJP is also winning over some people, such as Gaisilat primary schoolteacher Arabind Das, owing to its biggest draw, Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “I am a Congress supporter, but may back the BJP this time. In the panchayat polls, many of my neighbours turned to the BJP only because of Modi,” said Das.
ANNOUNCEMENTS GALORE IN BIJEPUR
A few months ago, the CM offered a drought package for 70 blocks, including Bijepur. He also announced a ₹1,246-crore lift irrigation project for Bijepur, which is located at an elevation of 200m and is water starved. Petroleum and natural gas minister Pradhan has announced a ₹750-crore ethanol plant in Bargarh.
Earlier this month, Union food minister Ram Vilas Paswan announced a relaxation in fair average quality norms for Odisha while procuring paddy from farmers whose crops were hit by unseasonal rains.