PARADIP: With the image of Cuttack-Barabati MLA Debashis Samantaray taking a beating over his manhandling of a relative of Pulwama terror attack martyr CRPF jawan Manoj Behera, the competition for the BJD ticket from Paradip Assembly segment has just got stiffer.Samantaray, who hails from Paradip, was being projected as the BJD candidate from the seat after expulsion of sitting MLA Damodar Rout from BJD. The Cuttack-Barabati MLA had even intensified his poll campaign by conducting a series of rallies, padyatras and meetings in different villages of Paradip.

However, the legislator’s misbehaviour with the martyr’s kin, the video of which went viral on social media and triggered a massive outrage across the country, and his absence from recent party meetings and Tuesday’s birth anniversary celebration of former chief minister Biju Patnaik in Paradip has emboldened the ticket seekers.

Sources said there has been a sea change in the political scenario of Paradip after the controversy involving Samantaray erupted. While BJP and Congress grabbed the opportunity to corner the BJD leader, sections in his own party have voiced opposition to his candidature. 

They are also raising the criminal cases lodged against the leader. Apart from the case registered against the MLA for shoving Pulwama martyr’s kin, another lawsuit is pending in Orissa High Court against Samantaray over death of five persons in a vehicle explosion near Kujang police station.

Sensing Samantray’s vulnerability, ticket aspirants including Paradip Municipality chairman Basant Kumar Biswal, sitting MP Kulamani Samal, trade union leader Santosh Patnaik and Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray have intensified electioneering. They are conducting rallies and meetings at village level to woo the voters. On Tuesday, they held parallel meetings to celebrate Biju Patnaik’s birth anniversary in a bid to demonstrate their popularity in Paradip. 

While Biswal organised ‘Yuba Utsav’ where Samantray was not invited, Routray conducted a separate meeting  in Kujang with his supporters. Similarly, local MP Samal held a separate event and Patnaik organised a ‘Jeevan Bindu’ on the occasion with support of district BJD president Bishnu Das. Political observers opined that the separate meetings organised by BJD leaders have exposed the rift in the ruling party and this internal bickering may affect BJD’s poll prospects in Paradip.