Bhubaneswar: Candidates of all three major political parties in Odisha, the ruling BJD, the BJP and the Congress, on Wednesday submitted their nomination papers for the May 31 bypoll to the Brajarajnagar Assembly seat in the Jharsuguda district.
Biju Janata Dal’s Alaka Mohanty, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Radharani Panda and Congress’ Kishore Patel submitted their nomination papers on Wednesday, the last day for filing nominations.
Taking out rallies with their party leaders and supporters, all three candidates went to the office of Jharsuguda Sub-Collector and returning officer to filed their nominations.
Senior BJD leaders and ministers including Naba Kishore Das, Padmanabha Behera, Tukuni Sahu, Prasanna Acharya, and Susanta Singh participated in the nomination filing programme.
The BJD leaders claimed that they will win the by-poll with a big margin of over 50,000 votes.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik always stands with the people in every up and down of their life. Late Kishore Mohanty was also having a strong relation with people of this area. So, we will definitely win the by-poll with a margin of over 50,000 votes,” claimed Behera.
The BJD candidate will win the by-election with a margin of more than 50,000 votes. Wait and see on June 3, said Naba Das.
BJP’s Panda submitted her nomination papers to the returning officer in presence of Odisha BJP President Sameer Mohanty, Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari and former Union Minister Jual Oram.
“The conscious citizens of the MLA segment will definitely reject the lollipop being offered by the ruling party during the elections and support the BJP,” said Mohanty.
The BJP, which had won the MLA seat in 2014 poll, will put its all efforts to win the seat again in this by-poll, said Pujari.
After filing his nomination, Congress nominee Patel said: “We will go to the voters and make them aware about their issues and problems, which the ruling parties have failed to resolve.”
Mohanty, the widow of late Kishore Mohanty, whose death necessitated the bypoll, is making her poll debut.
BJP’s Panda was elected to the Assembly from the seat by defeating BJD candidate Anup Kumar Sai in 2014. She, however, lost to BJD’s Kishore Mohanty by a margin of 11,634 votes in 2019.
Similarly, Congress’ Patel, a three-time MLA, unsuccessfully fought from the seat in 2014. In 2019, Congress had left the seat for the CPI.
(IANS)
