In BJD ‘fortress’ of Kendrapara, BJP banks on rising leader Jay Panda and Modi

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is leaving no stone unturned to ensure victory in the Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency, a seat which it has never lost since the 1998 Lok Sabha polls, even as the BJP looks to breach the “fortress” with its “trump card Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda”.

Local BJD leader Pradipta Kumar Dash in Katarapa village of the Salipur Assembly segment, who is busy in last-minute preparations for the June 1 polls, calls the seat the party’s “gada (fortress)” and says there is healthy competition among party leaders to maintain a good lead in their respective Assembly segments.

Salipur is one of the seven Assembly segments (all held by the BJD) that fall under the Lok Sabha seat, which goes to the polls along with five other constituencies and 42 Assembly seats in the last phase.

Panda, who is now with the BJP, had represented the Kendrapara seat between 2009 and 2019 as a BJD MP. This time he will lock horns with Anshuman Mohanty, former Congress MLA and son of ex-minister Nalini Mohanty. The Congress’s Sidharth Swarup Dash is also in the fray but the battle for Kendrapara seems to be a straight fight between Panda and Mohanty.

The BJD considers Kendrapara as the karmabhoomi of party patriarch Biju Patnaik, who won the seat thrice – in 1977 (as a candidate of the Bharatiya Lok Dal), 1980 (Janata Party-Secular) and 1984 (Janata Party) – despite the Congress’s political dominance in the state through the 1980s.

After Biju, the seat remained with the Janata Dal, won by veteran leaders like Rabi Ray – who won in 1989, went on to become Lok Sabha Speaker, and retained Kendrapara in 1991 – and Srikant Jena, who won in 1991 and was elevated as Union minister. Jena is now the Congress’s candidate from the Balasore Lok