TNI Bureau: While both BJD and BJP are gearing up for the big battle of 2024, with the ruling party holding the edge in assembly polls and the saffron party in Lok Sabha fight, BJD has set its target in some constituencies that it can’t afford to lose.
📌 Puri Lok Sabha: The prestigious Puri Lok Sabha seat is on the top of priority list where former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik is pitted against Sambit Patra, who lost the seat by a narrow margin last time. It’s a prestigious seat for BJD and especially VK Pandian, thanks to his keen interest and efforts in the Parikrama project. While Sambit has penetrated deep into the areas, Arup is fighting the polls on his own image, ‘local boy’ factor and BJD’s strong organisational structure.
📌 Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha: Next comes Bhubaneswar where BJD wants Aparajita to lose. Soft spoken and gentleman Manmath Routray is challenging fiery Aparajita Sarangi. Being Sura Routray’s son and from Paika background, may help Manmath a bit. Aparajita is facing stiff resistance within the party and is heavily dependent on own work and PM Modi’s roadshow. BJD infighting in Bhubaneswar Central and Ekamra may help Aparajita to some extent.
📌 Berhampur (Bramhapur) Lok Sabha: Berhampur Lok Sabha seat is one of the priority seats where the ruling party is leaving no stones unturned to defeat Pradeep Panigrahi. And, VK Pandian is personally fighting the battle for Bhrugu Baxipatra and doing everything possible to win this seat. It’s expected to be the ‘Mother of all Battles’ in Odisha and may go down the wire.
📌 Kendrapada Lok Sabha: Kendrapada is also on the hit list of Team BJD where they are determined to ensure Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda’s defeat for the second time by hook or by crook. Jay is one of the few leaders BJD can’t tolerate to see winning. Since Jay was not connected to the ground and was not supposed to contest this time, BJD eyes easy win here. But, Jay is confident of his chances based on the work done in the past, visits of some master strategists who are arriving in Kendrapada soon and campaigning by Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath and Himanta Biswa Sarma.
📌 Chandbali Assembly: BJP’s State Unit President Manmohan Samal is one of the few leaders who took head on the BJD and resisted the alliance talks. Thus, he remains the prime target for BJD and VK Pandian. BJD will do its best to secure his defeat in Chandbali assembly constituency.
📌 Sambalpur Lok Sabha: This seat is witnessing high-voltage contest between stalwarts Dharmendra Pradhan (BJP) and Pranab Prakash Das (BJD). BJD wanted to confine Dharmendra to Sambalpur by fielding Pranab against him and it has been successful so far. BJD probably knows that it will be difficult for them to stop Dharmendra electorally, but they want to restrict his political movement. VK Pandian continues to target Dharmendra in each and every meeting for mysterious reasons. He behaves as if Dharmendra remains the only leader in Odisha BJP. It has raised enough suspicion in the political circle too.