Bhubaneswar: As the BJD and the BJP fine-tune their strategy for the 2019 polls, both the parties appear to be eyeing the Congress vote bank with the state's main Opposition party in a free fall.

The victory of the BJD in the recent Bijepur bypoll is being attributed to the party's success in winning over Congress voters. BJD candidate, Rita Sahu, wife of former Congress MLA Subal Sahu, trounced her nearest BJP rival Ashok Panigrahi by a margin of nearly 42,000 votes.

The BJD, which wrested Bijepur from the Congress, saw its vote share jumping to 56.78 per cent from 31.88 per cent in 2014 Assembly elections.

The Congress vote share dropped to a meagre 5.65 per cent from 32.15 per cent in the last polls. The BJP, too, gained with its vote share going up from 18.11 per cent to 33.53 per cent, but it was not enough to script a win.

The Congress, which has 16 MLAs in the Assembly, has been on the downhill in the state for sometime. Much of it due to the party's internal strife, with rebels demanding the ouster of state Congress chief Prasad Harichandan.

With no signs of a let up in the party's factional feuds, the chances of the Congress putting up a creditable performance in future elections, let alone making a comeback in the state where it has been out of power for the last 18 years, appears remote.

Party leaders agree that the situation has made its MLAs vulnerable to poaching and that both the BJP and the BJD could take advantage of the crisis in the Congress.

"There is no denying that a number of party MLAs are unhappy. With our vote base crumbling, I guess 60 per cent of it could go to BJP because the people are also unhappy with chief minister Naveen Patnaik," said Congress MLA Tara Prasad Vahinipati.

Disagreeing with Vahinipati, veteran Congressman Niranjan Patnaik's said party fortunes would see a sea change in 2019.

All eyes in the Congress are now set on the AICC session in Delhi. Sources said the change in the party's fortunes would depend on AICC president Rahul Gandhi's ability to come up with a strategy that could inspire confidence among Congress leaders.

While there is speculation that Rahul could adopt a soft approach towards the BJD to keep the BJP at bay, Naveen would also prefer to enjoy the benefit of a weakened Congress in the state.

"We do not want the Congress to be completely decimated in the state," said BJD MP Prasanna Acharya. He admitted that both the BJP and the BJD would gain if the Congress weakened further.

"But we will gain more as we have a much better base in the state compared to the BJP," he said. However, BJP MLA Pradeep Purohit felt his party stood to gain more from Congress votes.

"Bijepur was a different story," he said.#Sources said Naveen was keen to ensure that Congress votes don't shift to the BJP, as this could give the latter entry into the coastal belt where it does not have a presence at the moment.