The mercury of the environment as well in the political environment is rising at Bijepur constituency as the by-poll date has been declared. By-poll is scheduled to be held on 24th and the counting is on 28th of February while last date of filing of nomination is on 6th of this month. BJP candidate Ashok Panigrahi has already filed nomination on 2nd and the BJD candidate Rita Sahu will file nomination on 5th. But Congress is yet to decide its candidate for the by-poll.
As per sources, with regard to the Bijepur by-poll a four- member committee was constituted headed by senior Congress leader Sri Naba Kishroe Das as Chief Coordinator consisting Kishor Patel, Prakash Chandra Debta and Sadhu Charan Nepak to find out the proper candidate for Congress Party. The committee visited the constituency as per the schedule and recommended the name of Pranaya Kumar Sahu in October 2017.
Again, in the same month a State level meeting was convened under the chairmanship State President Sri Prasad Harichandan. And the present members of the state committee recommended the name of Pranay Kumar Sahu unanimously on that meeting.
Further, another committee was constituted led by former Chief Minister Sri Hemananda Biswal, Jagannath Pattnaik, Sharat Pattnaik, Naba Kishore Das, Bhakta Charan Das, and Bargarh District President Ananta Sayan Padhi. Few days ago the committee visited the constituency to select Congress candidate for Bijepur by-poll. And this committee has recommended 2 names; Pranay Kumar Sahu and Ripunath Seth.
As Pranay was shown green signal earlier by the state unit in October, he organized the party workers in the constituency which was in disarray after the demise of Congress MLA Subal Sahu. Now a positive response is there in favour of him in the constituency. As he belongs to Kulata community and the whole community is supporting him irrespective of party-line. Again, he is active in the grass root since long holding many political portfolios. And he is associated with many NGOs, farmer’s organization and Co-operative movements which makes strong about his winning prospective.
As per as Ripunath Seth is concern, he was away from the party organization since long. Last time he was fielded as Congress candidate in 2000. Thereafter Subal Sahu was given the ticket in next election. Since then he is away from the active politics and party organization. Ripunath Seth may not give a good fight to BJD and BJP candidate at this juncture.
Saket Sreebhushan Sahu comments on politics and culture.