Samikhsya Bureau
The Congress party has been already at the nets for the 2019 polls with an aim to rediscover its lost moorings in Odisha. The local leadership spearheaded by Niranjan Patnaik has already made out a list of the probable candidates for the coming Lok Sabha election. The list, it appears, has surely some significant missing of faces while possibility of some surprise inclusions of names cannot be ruled out when the final list comes after the approval of the party high command .
The days are not far and the Congress party in Odisha that seemed to have taken a very defensive stance after its relegation to the third position after the last rural polls tried to play its cards very carefully amid visceral bickering within.
Although the central election committee would ponder over the winnability for preparing the final list of probables, yet leaked tentative list has emerged out and is in circulation in the social media, causing high palpitation in some quarters of the party.
As it appears, the Congress in Odisha, which has remained a beleaguered unit for last two decades almost, may avoid risky experiments by going for a big chunk of faces from the sideline. So, retention of a good number old faces may be an indication of its defensive mindset.
Although the committee would finally prepare the list for both the assembly and the Lok Sabha this week end and send it for the finalisation by the central leadership, but the tentative list, if it comes out to be even near accurate, then there is bound to be some kind of rebellion in the days to come.
For major parliamentary seats like Cuttack for instance, there is a hint at fielding of a new face like Panchanan Kanungo, who had joined the Congress fairly recently, might upset old timers like Suresh Mohapatra, notwithstanding the fact that he had never been able to made any worthwhile impact in electoral field. Who rather earned the tag of a perpetual loser reducing his political profile to mediocrity. However the new name,Kanungo, may raise some eyebrows when it is a question of mass following.
A glance through the tentative list in circulation reads somewhat like this:
Sambalpur: (Sarat Patnaik/ Amar Pradhan) where Sarat Patnaik may be a mammoth mismatch.
Bhubaneswar: (may left for an ally)
Mayurbhanj: Also reserved for JMM
Kalahandi: (Bhakta Charan Das/ Jagannath Patnaik) two veteran leaders in politics and exclusion of either of the one might create an air of discord.
Sundergarh: George Tirkey (was a foregone conclusion)
Bolangir: (Samarendra Mishra/ Lakhman Meher)
Jagatsingpur: (Prashant Mallik/ Bishnu Charan Tarai) is one of the politically most vibrant constituencies where it may be a battle royale and a Congress bastion traditionally may give tough fight to the ruling party Biju Janata Dal.
Nabarangpur: Pradip Majhi/ Chandrasekhar Majhi ) where the former may have fair chances to be in the fray.
Jajpur: (Manas Jena/ Arjun Charan Das)
Kendrapada: (Dharanidhar Nayak/ Chinmay Behura) A constituency in all likelihood to witness a multi-corner fight with Baijayant Panda jumping into the ring and the BJD putting its all efforts to see Panda thrashed out )
Balasore: (Navajyoti Patnaik/ Sudershan Das ) Both new faces and one who is from the first family here and the other, a man from NGO background having little barb to cut much ice so, which may little the balance in favour of some other party .
Kandhamal: (Chandra Sekhar Parida/ Manoj Kumar Parida)
Dhenkanal: (K.P.Singh Deo/ Ram Chandra Khuntia)
Puri : Biswaranjan Mohanty
Berhampur: (Tirupati Panigrahi/ Trinath Behera)
Bhadrak: (Ananat Prasad Sethi/ Panchanan Mandal)
It is a whole mix of hope and despair as is evident from the tentative list that the Congress party riding on the crest of a chance victory or otherwise. But, in substance, Congress is to fight with its back to the wall.
