Samikhsya Bureau
If the polling for the Patakura assembly seat is not held as scheduled, then it will be a double whammy for the Bharatiya Janata Party there. Mainly the twofold blow may place the BJP candidate there, Bijoy Mohapatra, who is trying hard to take the clock back to pre-2000 era when Patakura and Mohapatra had remained synonymous for quite long.
The first blow for Mohapatra came by the postponement of the polling post the demise of the BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwal and it seems the polling for Patakura may further get delayed. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is reportedly meeting the Election Commission of India urging the latter to consider shifting the date of polling there in view of the threats from the cyclonic storm Fani that is building up along Bay of Bengal.
But there are, perhaps, little chances that the ECI can, at this stage, postpone the date of polling once it is notified on the ground of the looming danger from Fani, which may die down by May 4 or May 5 of this month.
After the 2000 political debacle Mohapatra had tried his luck four times to become a MLA but failed. This is an opportunity that he hoped to capitalise, at least riding the on the crest of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity but, that seems getting paled against circumstantial or allegedly politically engineered headwinds. More it gets delayed there is a fear of the momentum built in his favour, on the diminish and dangers from the rivals may become more potent.
That would double the task of Bijoy Mohapatra and the BJD under any circumstance would not like Mohapatra back in the assembly.
On the other hand, the chances of a sympathy wave in favour of the BJD candidate, Sabitri Agarwal, the widow of late Agarwal, are far and few. Even sources in Patkura give to understand that although many people there have strong liking for late Agarwal that emotion is unlikely to build a wave of sympathy in favour of Sabitri Agarwal.
“We are not against any individual but most of us think that Mohapatra had done a lot for Patakura, which his successors could not take anything forward,” said a local from Patakura.
In nutshell, Mohapatra, who had struggled through last two decades almost to recapture the lost momentum in Patakura, should not give up hopes still.
