Turncoats hold key in Odisha assembly 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 CM Naveen Patnaik and BJP heavyweight and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan,” said Bipin Meher, a weaver in 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 of Bijepur in western Odisha’s Bargarh district, died of cancer in August last year, 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 20002004, Ashok Panigrahi, whom many spoke of as a frontrunner for the party ticket, joined the BJP in October last year.

Panigrahi was denied the BJD ticket from Bijepur for 2014 polls and contested as an independent. He lost, but the BJD candidate lost too amid a vote split. All talk of a patch-up fizzled out when the CM picked Sahu. Now, Panigrahi, 60, is the BJP candidate.

In contrast to Sahu’s demeanour,

and several kilometres away the same day, Panigrahi, 60, met voters in Kothamal village and accused BJD of embezzling money meant for housing schemes.

More than two dozen senior BJD leaders have parked themselves in Bijepur, 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.

BJD has a near-invincible record in bypolls since 2000, but the BJP’s win in the zila parishad polls 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 rural poll results, the BJP, which won just 10 assembly seats in the 2014 assembly polls, 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. Turncoats are expected to be the real influencers. The BJD has reaped the maximum harvest of turncoats from BJP and Congress. The ruling party has inducted BJP district president, Narayan Sahu, and Congress chairperson and vice-chairperson of Barpali notified area council. The Congress, which suffered maximum 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 Congress to BJD. “When he 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 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.