By Priya Ranjan Sahu
Among the six Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha that are going to polls in the fourth phase, politically volatile Kendrapara has drawn the maximum attention from political watchers.
The Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency has always been a bastion of anti-Congress politics. In the history of the constituency, the Congress has won only once – Nityanand Kanungo in 1952. On the other hand, it has mostly elected leaders with socialist moorings.
Over the years, the constituency has developed a strong Biju legacy because it became the favourite political battleground of former chief minister Biju Patnaik. Since the Naveen Patnaik government came to power in the state in 2000, the BJD has made Kendrapara its impregnable fort on the foundation of the legacy.
Industrialist and media baron Baijayant Panda won from Kendrapara for two successive terms in 2009 and 2014 on a Biju Janata Dal ticket. This time he has switched side to the Bharatiya Janata Party following his bitter fight with Patnaik.
Though the BJD has fielded Anubhav Mohanty, Odisha’s most popular cine actor, against Panda, the fight is clearly between Panda and Patnaik. It is visible across different assembly segments of the constituency.
In 2014, Panda had won from the Kendrapara constituency with a huge margin drawing over six lakh votes while his Congress rival Dharanidhar Nayak got around 3.90 lakh votes. The BJP was a poor third with just above one lakh votes.
But with Panda contesting as a BJP candidate this time, things are vastly different. No doubt, he has earned the goodwill of many people across the constituency for implementing some development works like water projects from his MPLAD funds. But at the same time, many others say that whatever he did was as the representative of Patnaik, who had given him a free hand prior to their difference. And now that he is taking on Patnaik’s representative Anubhav Mohanty, many say that the elections are getting difficult for Panda by the day.
Even Panda is aware of the fact that the six lakh plus votes he got in 2014 elections were mainly due to the strong BJD organisation in each of the seven assembly segments. However, over a decade of being the MP, he had consolidated about a lakh of his personal votes, which may be of no help in winning the seat this time.
People said that Panda is not depending much on the BJP votes but trying to mobilise Congress votes by aligning with the assembly candidates of the national party. Some of the Congress candidates are quite strong in their assembly areas. A Congress worker in Aul assembly constituency campaigning for sitting Congress MLA Debendra Sharma indeed said that he and many other party men would vote for Panda in Lok Sabha. “My daughter is even campaigning for him,” he said.
What has added to Panda’s advantage is the allegations of a powerful sitting BJD MLA trying to scuttle the chance of some fellow BJD assembly contestants in Kendrapara. Moreover, Odisha’s biggest TV news channel, OTV, is at his beck and call.
But the challenges before him are even greater.
Mohanty, as a film star, too has his own share of followers among youngsters. Besides, the biggest challenge is from Patnaik himself, who has a huge impact on people of the constituency as the son of Biju Babu as well as for the welfare schemes for poor like Re.1 per kg rice, Ahar Yojna, pension for widows, and old and disabled people, who look up to him as a sort of messiah.
Voters across the constituency say that ‘Naveen’ persona overpowers everything – secret dealings, internal conflicts, political conspiracies et al. And he may use the persona to the fullest to ensure Panda’s defeat.
The election results will show if Panda is a force to reckon with or was just a representative of Patnaik in Kendrapara.
