Balasore, April 15: The role of former law minister and BJD leader Raghunath Mohanty, who had been elected from this Assembly seats for five consecutive terms and was denied the party ticket following dowry torture allegations by his daughter-in-law, will determine the fate of the ruling party here.
After Barsa Swony Chaudhary, Mohanty’s daughter-in-law, brought the charges against the minister, he went into hiding. He and his wife were later arrested from Bengal. Twenty-four-year-old Barsa hogged the limelight by making numerous trips to the corridors of power seeking justice. She had even met chief minister Naveen Patnaik on the eve of the elections.
Naveen was quick to replace Mohanty with three-time Basta block chairman and former zilla parishad member Nityananda Sahu. At present, Sahu’s wife Sabita is the chairperson of Basta block.
Though Sahu is supposed to be a close confidant of Mohanty, he is fighting the battle on his own as a sulking Mohanty keeps a low profile. His supporters are unhappy and had asked him to contest as an Independent. And, now they are said to be working against the official nominee.
“We are confused as we don’t know what’s going on in Mohanty’s mind”, said one of his supporters. Mohanty, who is aware that any wrong move by him could invite the wrath of the party leadership, remains incommunicado.
The BJD has drafted revenue minister Surjya Narayan Patro, a close associate of Mohanty, to oversee the poll arrangements and also mollify Mohanty whose grip on the constituency is quite firm.
Pitted against the BJD candidate, is Congress’ Jay Narayan Mohanty, who was elected from neighbouring Jaleswar seat in 2000. Mohanty’s advantage is that some of his areas (of earlier Jaleswar) are part of this constituency. Union minister Srikant Jena is seeking re-election from the Lok Sabha constituency and is actively campaigning for his party candidate. UPA president Sonia Gandhi had addressed a public meeting at the venue, barely 30km from Basta on April 11.
BJP nominee Shyama Prasad Behera is a new face and banking on the Modi factor. Incidentally, Modi, too, had addressed a public meeting in Balasore on Friday.
l Basta votes on April 17
