Battle lines are drawn for the Lok Sabha elections in Odisha with the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announcing candidates for almost all the constituencies. While the BJP has fielded its candidates on all the 21 parliamentary seats in the state, the BJD has so far released the names of 20 nominees for the Lok Sabha elections.
Ganjam district’s Berhampur Lok Sabha seat is among the high-profile constituencies in the state which will remain in the focus during the upcoming elections. It is the home turf of Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik. The BJD is leaving no stone unturned to retain the seat while an exuberant BJP is putting all the efforts to wrest it from the ruling party.
It is a battle of prestige for both the parties in Berhampur keeping in view the rivalry between BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy, once a top BJD leader in Ganjam, and the ruling party leadership. The Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency includes Chhatrapur, Gopalpur, Berhamapur, Digapahandi and Chikiti Assembly segments in Ganjam district and Mohana and Paralakhemundi Assembly segments in Gajapati district.
Both BJP and BJD have posed their faith in party hoppers for the Berhampur constituency. The BJP has nominated former BJD heavyweight and sitting Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy, while the ruling BJD fielded BJP rebel Bhrugu Baxipatra for the seat. Baxipatra was nominated just a few hours after he walked out of the BJP.
Baxipatra had fought the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from the same seat on a BJP ticket but lost to BJD’s Chandra Sekhar Sahu who won by a margin of 94,844 votes. Sahu had secured 4,43,843 votes out of the total 9, 90,087 votes polled. Once a trusted lieutenant of the BJD supremo, Panigrahy turned a foe after being expelled from the party over the charges of anti-people activities. He had won from the Gopalpur Assembly seat on a BJD ticket in 2019.
Political analysts predict a neck-to-neck fight in Berhampur this time as Panigrahy and Baxipatra will strive hard to capture the seat. “It is hard to predict the winner this time as the political scenario in the constituency has changed. Panigrahy used to oversee all the party-related affairs of BJD in Ganjam district and his strong support base in the district is still intact despite the allegations of corruption,” said Rajiblochan Mishra, a Berhampur-based senior journalist.
“It will be also interesting to see how Panigrahy manages to gain a foothold in the Paralakhemundi and Mohana segments in Gajapati district where Baxipatra, as a BJP candidate, had secured more votes than his BJD opponent in 2019,” Mishra added. “The current BJD representative of the constituency has failed to address various concerns of the locals. We will fight on these issues,” said Panigrahy.
