BJP’s Odisha face Dharmendra Pradhan vs BJD’s No. 3 ‘Bobby’ Das in Sambalpur

Waiting outside the renovated complex of the famed Samaleswari Temple, Sambalpur native Hrusikesh Swain responds quickly to a question to say he will vote for the BJP on May 25 in this Lok Sabha seat. However, when asked about his choice for the Assembly elections, he pauses.

“Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik are good leaders, for the country and Odisha, respectively. I want to vote for the BJD in the Assembly polls, because of the Patnaik government’s work for the Samaleswari shrine. But I am still undecided,” Swain says.

The Sambalpur Lok Sabha segment in western Odisha was won thrice by the BJD’s Prasanna Acharya in 1998, 1999 and 2004. However, since 2009, a new MP has been elected every election. While the Congress’s Amar Pradhan won in 2009, he finished third in 2014, when the BJD’s Nagendra Pradhan bagged the seat. In 2019, the BJP’s Nitesh Ganga Deb defeated the BJD’s Nalinikanta Pradhan to win.

In the ring this time are the BJP’s Odisha face and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who returns to the state electoral battlefield after 15 years, versus Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das aka Bobby. A senior BJD leader, he is considered the third-most powerful individual in the party after the CM and his close aide V K Pandian.

Dharmendra Pradhan contested in Odisha last from the Pallahara Assembly seat in 2009, when he lost to the BJD’s Rabi Narayan Pani. Subsequently, he has been twice elected to the Rajya Sabha.

Before 2009, Pradhan was elected to the state Assembly once, from Pallahara in 2000, and to the Lok Sabha once, from Deogarh in 2004.

As the BJD picks up the gauntlet against Pradhan, what is likely to impact its prospect in the high-profile fight is the fact that Das belongs originally to the state’s coastal belt.