Lok Sabha Polls 2019: BJP’s Sambit Patra in Puri would have preferred more of votes than eyeballs

Sambit Patra has certainly got more eyeballs than his two principal rivals, during the campaign: partly because of his unusual attire and partly because of his unconventional antics like taking a dip in the village pond or prostrating before an elderly lady. But what the ‘star’ BJP candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency would have really liked is more of votes.

Patra, after all, is pitted against a formidable rival, Pinaki Mishra (BJD), a three-term MP from the constituency that had polled over 5.23 lakh votes and had defeated his nearest rival, Sucharita Mohanty of the Congress, with a margin of over 2.6 lakh votes in 2014. The margin was even bigger against the third placed BJP candidate Ashok Sahu, who polled 2, 15, 763 votes. Bridging the difference of over 3 lakh votes is going to be a Herculean task for Patra, an outsider in Puri, notwithstanding the decline of both the BJD since the last election. But the party would be desperately hoping that some of the votes that the Congress loses would come its way, as they did in the panchayat election in 2017.

What goes in favour of the BJD in Puri is the fact that six of the seven Assembly segments under the Lok Sabha constituency are in the ruling party’s kitty while the seventh (Chilika) is held by Bibhuti Bhushan Harichandan of the BJP. For the Congress, which drew a blank in all seven Assembly seats last time, it is going to be even tougher this time. For one thing, the party has found more – and newer – ways of scoring a self goal in this election. For another, the Congress candidate, journalist turned politician Satya Prakash Nayak, is an ‘outsider’ in Puri like Sambit Patra. To some extent, the ‘outsider’ tag fits Pinaki Mishra too even though he belongs to Puri since he has lived the better part of his life in the national capital and has spent precious little time in the constituency during his three terms as MP. But he more than makes up for this handicap with the solid organisational base of the ruling party and the firm support of party supremo Naveen Patnaik.

There have been several incidents of violence and irregularities during polling in Puri on Tuesday with clashes between supporters of BJD and BJP over allegations of rigging reported from various places in the parliamentary constituency including Penthakata in the pilgrim town and Brahmagiri. The biggest development in this election, however, took place on Monday when former minister and Pipli strongman Pradeep Maharathy was arrested for an attack on a Static Surveillance Team (SST), which had gone to verify reports of distribution of cash and liquor at his farm house, the previous night. But his arrest is unlikely to affect the electoral prospects of either the six-time Pipli MLA or his party as a whole in the Puri LS seat.

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