BJD pulls out all stops to win Patkura polls

Bhubaneswar: With the Election Commission of India (ECI) scheduling the

Patkura

assembly polls on July 20, over a dozen senior BJD leaders, including cabinet ministers and MLAs, are camping in the constituency to ensure the party’s victory.

The ruling party has fielded Sabitri Agarawalla, wife of former MLA Bed Prakash Agarawalla, while senior leader Bijoy Mohapatra is BJP’s candidate from the seat. Congress has picked Jayanta Kumar Mohanty.

Several cabinet ministers like Ranendra Pratap Swain, Prafulla Mallik, Arun Sahoo and Susanta Singh and senior leaders like Pramila Mallik, Pratap Deb, Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Sanjay Das Burma, Sarada Nayak and Pranab Balabantaray are looking after party’s campaign in the coastal constituency.

“We are holding meetings at gram panchayats, where we are highlighting the welfare initiatives of the state government. People of Patkura are with BJD and they would repose their faith again in our party,” said Nayak.

BJD insiders said party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik may also hit campaign trail at the fag end though the detailed tour programme is yet to be finalized. Political analysts said the ruling party has taken the assembly election as a prestige battle even though it has 111 MLAs in the assembly.