The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha seems to be well ahead of its rivals in wooing away prominent faces from the rival Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Congress camps.
The saffron party has so far attracted over a dozen prominent leaders from the BJD and Congress. The prominent faces include sitting and former MLAs and Lok Sabha members.
Two sitting BJD MLAs — Bhartuhari Mahtab (Cuttack) and Anubhav Mohanty (Kendrapara) and one former MP — Siddhant Mohapatra (Berhampur) — recently joined the BJP.
Bhartruhari has been ticket to contest from Cuttack Lok Sabha seat while Siddhant has been fielded from Digapahandi assembly constituency. Anubhav is likely to be fielded for an assembly seat in Cuttack district.
Odisha will go to simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha in four phases: May 13, May20, May 25 and June 1.
The BJD leaders who have joined the BJP include, Anubhav Mohanty, Arabinda Dhali, Akash Das Nayak, Balabhadra Majhi, Bhartruhari Mahatab, Dambaru Sisha, Debashis Nayak, Mukund Sodi, Pradip Panigrahi, Prashant Jagdeb, Rajendra Das, Premananda Nayak, Priyadarshi Mishra and Siddhant Mohapatra.
Ramachandra Panda, former Deputy Speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, is also likely to join the saffron party.
Two former Congress legislators – Naren Palei of Bhadrak and Nabin Chandra Narayan Das – have also joined the BJP.
On the other hand, the BJD has managed to woo former and sitting lawmakers like Adhiraj Panigrahi (Congress), Surendra Singh Bhoi (Congress), Sukanta Panigrahi (BJP), Prakash Behera (BJP) and Chiranjib Biswal (Congress). One or two former Congress legislators are likely to join the party. Some of the names which are doing the rounds include Kantabanji MLA Santosh Singh Saluja (Congress) and BJP leader Raghunath Mohanty.
Raghunath Mohanty, a former minister, was a BJD stalwart before joining the BJP a few years ago.
According to political analysts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “good governance” and Odisha state BJP unit’s aggressive posturing against “corruption” and “nepotism” in the ruling BJD dispensation is helping it attract young voters. Besides, the Union government’s special assistance and increase in allocation of funds for various Central and central-sponsored programmes are also accounting for the party garnering support of the common people.
