Bhubaneswar, Nov. 17: Campaigning for municipal polls in western Odisha picked up with chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik making a whirlwind tour to the area.
The Congress is considered to be strong in west Odisha. Of the 35 Assembly seats in the region, the Congress represents 16 seats, BJD 14 and the BJP four. Before the alliance between the BJD and the BJP was severed in 2009, the former had almost conceded the region to the BJP, which, too, has a strong organisational presence in the area.
In the urban polls, political circles feel that in most places triangular contests are expected to take place like in the past Assembly polls. Elections are being held in 20 urban bodies spread across nine districts.
Naveen, who had flown into Bargarh and Sonepur districts in a helicopter, addressed campaign meeting in Sundargarh and Kuchinda in Sambalpur district today.
Addressing a gathering at Padmapur in Bargarh yesterday, Naveen raised the issue of establishment of a separate Orissa High Court bench in west Odisha and said the party had already made a recommendation to the effect.
He highlighted several welfare schemes implemented by his government.
The BJD has launched campaigning in an aggressive mode. It has roped in popular film star Anubhav, who has recently joined the party.
Anubhav was seen delivering his popular dialogues at election meetings to draw crowd.
Film star-turned-BJD MP Siddhant Mohapatra and former Hockey India captain and Rajya Sabha member Dillip Tirkey have also been drafted for campaigning.
Finance minister Prasanna Acharya and panchayati raj minister Kalpataru Das are campaigning in Bargarh and Sundargarh districts, which have a large number of poll-bound urban bodies. Other ministers such as Surjya Narayan Patro, Niranjan Pujari and Arun Sahoo were also entrusted with some other western districts.
The Congress is relying on its senior and local leaders. “The respective district units have been entrusted with the campaign. We have requested all our senior leaders to join the campaign,” said Pradesh Congress Committee president Jayadev Jena.”
“I will cover all the municipalities and notified area councils by road,” said Jena, who launched his campaign from Deogarh this morning. Jena will end his tour with a rally at Bhawanipatna on November 20.
Apart from Jena, All India Congress Committee secretary in charge of Odisha Subhankar Sarkar and senior leaders such as Jagannath Patnaik, Kishore Patel, Ramkrushna Patnaik, Narasingh Mishra and sitting MPs and MLAs are camping at various places. “The public opinion is in our favour,” said Mishra, hoping that the voters would not be swayed away by money and muscle power of the BJD.
The BJP’s campaigning has been a low-key affair. “Urban election has become a costly affair with the use of helicopter by the chief minister and campaigning by film stars. Contesting the election has become forbidden for common man,” said BJP spokesperson Suresh Pujari, stating that they would resort to door-to-door campaign.
