Lok Sabha Polls: Party hoppers have a field day in Odisha ahead of elections

In the 2019 general elections, BJD had won 12 seats, BJP 8, and Congress 1.

It’s the season of turncoats in Odisha. Fresh recruits from rival parties dominate the list of candidates announced by the two major contenders for power in the state – Biju Janata Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party. In contrast, the Congress has turned out to be the poaching ground for the other two players, with many of its potentially winning candidates crossing over to the other side.

BJP Fields Most Turncoats

The BJP is way ahead of the ruling BJD when it comes to rewarding recruits from other parties, mainly the BJD. The biggest catch for the saffron party, of course, is Bhartruhari Mahtab, who has won from the prestigious Cuttack parliamentary seat on a BJD ticket six times in a row and has now been fielded from the same constituency by the BJP. Former minister Pradeep Panigrahi, once a close confidante of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who was expelled from the BJD for alleged ‘anti-people’ activities, has been fielded by the BJP as its candidate in the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat.

BJD, in contrast, has named only one fresh recruit - from the Congress – in the list of 15 Lok Sabha candidates released so far. Former Congress MLA from Rajnagar Anshuman Mohanty, who joined the ruling party just days ago, is now the BJD candidate from the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat. He will lock horns with BJP national vice president Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda in the politically significant seat, which has been a fortress of sorts for the BJD. Former Congress MP from the tribal dominated Nabarangpur parliamentary constituency Pradeep Majhi, who joined the BJD in 2021, has been fielded as the ruling party candidate from the same seat this time.

BJP Vice President Bhrugu Baxipatra joined BJD on Wednesday and is likely to be fielded as the BJD candidate from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, where he lost as the BJP candidate in 2019.

The list of former BJD leaders who will be contesting the Assembly elections on BJP ticket this time is much longer. The list of 112 Assembly candidates released by the BJP on Tuesday has a host of names who joined the party after leaving the ruling party in the last few days. They include cine star and two-time BJD MP from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, Siddhant Mohapatra, who will be contesting as a BJP candidate from the Digapahandi Assembly seat, while Akash Das Nayak, another tinsel town star and former BJD MLA from Korei, is the BJP candidate from the same seat now. The recruits from the BJD, who have been fielded by the BJP from their old constituencies are two-time MLA from Khallikote Purna Chandra Sethi, three-time MLA Arabinda Dhali in Jaydev, Priyadarshi Mishra in Bhubaneswar North and Tejeswar Parida in Patkura. Rajendra Das, who contested as a rebel candidate after being denied a ticket by the BJD to contest in the Dhamanagar by-election last year, has been rewarded with a BJP ticket to contest from the neighbouring Soro constituency. Besides, Prashant Jagdev, BJD MLA from Chilka in the outgoing Assembly, is most likely to be fielded as the BJP candidate from the Begunia assembly seat this time.

Assembly Poll Contest Heats Up 

While the list of 72 candidates for the assembly elections released by the BJD last Wednesday did not include many turncoats, the party has been on a recruitment spree in the last few days, picking up leaders with a winning chance from both the Congress and the BJP. Many of these leaders are expected to figure in the list of candidates for the rest 75 seats. The most prominent catch among them is former minister Ganeswar Behera, who joined the party on Tuesday and is being seen as the prospective ruling party candidate from the Kendrapara assembly constituency.

The other recent recruits from the Congress include former Congress working president and ex Jagatsinghpur MLA Chiranjib Biswal, former minister and president of the party’s Bolangir district unit Surendra Bhoi, sitting Khariar MLA Adhiraj Panigrahi, former Paralakhemundi MLA K Surya Rao and sitting BJP MLA from Nilagiri Sukanta Nayak. All of them are expected to figure in the ruling party’s second list of 75 assembly candidates and are likely to be fielded from their old constituencies.

Congress Far Behind in Race

With so many of its leaders leaving the party in search of greener pastures, the Congress is way behind the other two players in the poaching game, netting only one noteworthy recruit in the shape of former BJD minister and five-time MLA Balabhadra Majhi. No wonder, he was promptly named as the party candidate from Lanjigarh, the constituency he represented in 2000, 2004 and 2014.

Sandeep Sahu is a senior Bhubaneswar-based journalist and columnist, who has authored a biography of President Droupadi Murmu published by Penguin India. Views are personal and do not represent the stand of this publication.