Ashutosh Mishra 
Jajpur (Odisha): Though the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been trying hard to penetrate into the interior areas of the Jajpur Lok Sabha constituency, it appears lotus (BJP symbol) is unable to bloom here.
Notwithstanding the fact that BJP candidate Amiya Kant Mallick polled over four lakh votes in 2019, which continues to fuel the hopes of the saffron party, the overwhelming sentiment here is in favour of Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
“There is hardly any doubt about BJD’s repeat victory in Jajpur which has been the party’s bastion for a long time. A section of people may like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but it is unlikely to shake their loyalty to the chief minister’s party,” said former journalist Lelin Mallick.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Jajpur, incidentally, happens to be the home district of BJD’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das aka Bobby who is contesting the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat this time. Polling having concluded in Sambalpur, where he is pitted against Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Bobby is now concentrating full-time on Jajpur and the seven assembly seats falling under it. The BJD’s Jajpur Lok Sabha candidate Sarmistha Sethi is said to be his protege.
Stakes are high for Bobby, the third most important man in BJD after chief minister Naveen Patnaik and his Man Friday V.K. Pandian, as candidates not only for the Jajpur Lok Sabha seat but also the seven assembly seats falling under it have been picked with his consent. While his protégé Sujata Sahu is the party’s candidate from the Jajpur assembly seat, which he has won three times in a row since 2009, his mother Sandhyarani Das, the widow of Janata Dal veteran Ashok Das, is contesting the Korei seat.
Jajpur town is rife with speculation that Bobby has sought to hedge his bets by fielding Sandyarani from Korei which his father won several times on Janata Dal ticket before it turned into a BJD bastion. “Sambalpur is a tough contest and if it does not go his way, he will have Korei as a fallback option. His mother will keep the seat warm for him,” said political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra.
Currently, all the seven assembly segments falling under this Lok Sabha constituency are being represented by BJD with Bobby enjoying friendly equations with most of the MLAs. However, the party’s decision to change the candidate in constituencies like Badchana seems to have triggered resentment among a section of BJD workers. In Badchana, veteran Amar Satpathy has been replaced with Odia film actress Barsha Priyadarshini, a political rookie. Though chief minister Naveen Patnaik is said to have extracted a promise from Satpathy to support Barsha, his supporters continue to sulk and may not cooperate wholeheartedly in the campaign.
Similarly, in Korei, Bobby’s mother Sandhyarani is facing his one-time protégé actor-turned-politician Akash Das Nayak who quit the BJD soon after the announcement of elections and joined the BJP. Though Sandyarani enjoys an edge over Akash, the latter enjoys the reputation of being a good organiser and is capable of putting up a good fight.
Due to BJD’s strong organisational base in the Jajpur Lok Sabha constituency, it is capable of overcoming such problems. However, it is not going to be a cakewalk for the party. While BJP’s hopes have swelled following its creditable performance in 2019 when it polled over four lakh votes, its candidate Rabindra Narayan Behera is campaigning intensively trying to highlight the alleged lack of development in the constituency.
Party workers are also harping on the same theme and assuring people that things would change for the better if they vote for “ change” this time by opting for the lotus symbol. “Considering that Jajpur’s politics is controlled by chief minister’s protégé Pranab Prakash Das aka Bobby, this constituency should have seen a lot of development in the last five years. But not much has changed here. Even the condition of rural roads is not very good,” said Kartik Das, a BJP loyalist, adding that Modi’s popularity would further brighten the prospects of the party candidate.
Congress has fielded veteran Anchal Das, a former MP from the seat. Das had won from Jajpur in 1996 on a Janata Dal ticket and hence knows the constituency like the back of his hand. Congress is hopeful that its candidate, despite lack of resources, would make the contest truly triangular. Such hopes notwithstanding there is no denying the fact that Congress is on the wane in the constituency which was once its stronghold. The party last won the seat in 1998 when its candidate Rama Chandra Mallick emerged victorious. Anchal would obviously bank this time on the traditional Congress vote-bank among the Dalits but even that is likely to be fragmented given the party’s shrinking base in the constituency.
Currently, the equations favour the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal which has its MLAs in Binjharpur, Bari, Badchana, Dharmshala, Jajpur, Korei and Sukinda assembly segments of this Lok Sabha constituency. While chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s personal appeal to people to vote for the party candidate is likely to help BJD, the biggest factor would be election management which is being looked after by chief minister’s confidant Bobby himself. He is a master strategist who has always delivered for his party. He gave ample proof of his managerial skills in the last panchayat elections held in 2022 when BJD swept even in areas where the BJP had held sway in the rural polls of 2017.
In Jajpur, which happens to be his home district, he seems even more likely to succeed, especially given the resources at his command and the solid backing of his mentor, chief minister Naveen Patnaik.