Close contest on the cards in Odisha’s six Lok Sabha constituencies

Lok Sabha polls 2024: Final phase of Odisha elections with intense campaigning by key leaders; crucial contest for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.

The four-phase election in Odisha has entered the final stage with six Lok Sabha seats, mostly in the coastal region, going to the polls on June 1. The Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 assembly segments under these six parliamentary seats may witness a close contest this time.

While 66 candidates are in the fray for the Lok Sabha elections, 394 candidates are vying for the 42 assembly seats in the States. In total, 99,43,370 electors will exercise their voting right on the last day of polling.

Former Union Ministers Srikant Jena and Pratap Sarangi, BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda and senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Rajashree Mallick are involved in intense campaigning to win their respective seats.

In the Assembly election, BJP State President Manmohan Samal, former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Niranjan Patnaik, State Ministers Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Pratap Deb and Pritiranjan Ghadai and Speaker of Odisha Assembly Pramila Mallick are in the fray.

Sensing an opportunity to better the BJP’s dismal performance in the State in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other senior BJP leaders are crisscrossing the coastal region to give one last push to the party’s campaign.

This phase is crucial for the BJD, which achieved a sweeping victory in the Assembly elections in 2019 and secured an absolute majority in the State Assembly. Facing anti-incumbency after being in power for 25 years, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, along with his aide V. K. Pandian, has intensified the campaign by touring various parts of the constituencies.

The Balasore Lok Sabha seat is set to witness a triangular contest with the Congress’s Srikant Jena, the BJP’s Pratap Sarangi and the BJD’s Lekhashree Samantsinghar mounting fierce campaigns. The electoral fight in Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha is expected to be tough for the BJP. The saffron party is facing a herculean task to repeat its 2019 success when it won the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat and its six Assembly constituencies.