Hit by Raghunath exit, BJD goes all out to retain Basta

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD has pulled out all stops to retain the Basta assembly segment under Balasore parliamentary constituency as exit of former minister Raghunath Mohanty from the party may affect party’s prospects in the coastal seat.
Basta is a BJD bastion since inception of the ruling party as it has retained the seat since 2000. Political equations in the constituency changed days before the elections after Mohanty switched to BJP and became a candidate from the seat.
The ruling party retained its sitting MLA Nityananda Sahu from the seat. BJD’s Balasore district unit president and party candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat Rabindra Jena has been making all out efforts to ensure party’s victory from the seat.
With advantages like Mohanty’s strong support base in Baliapal and Basta blocks and organizational skills and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP aims to make inroads into the constituency.
The saffron party’s focus on the seat was proved after Modi addressed a rally here on Tuesday.
Though Mohanty had been winning the seat continuously from 1990 to 2014 (thrice as BJD candidate and twice on Janata Dal ticket), the BJD denied him a ticket in 2014 assembly election after he was arrested in a dowry torture case slapped by his daughter-in-law Barsa Swony Choudhury in March 2013.
Even as the former minister had not come out openly in support of Sahu in 2014, he remained silent that helped the BJD sail through smoothly, said an analyst.
“The BJD is being run by a group of vested interests and it has deviated from the ideology of Biju Patnaik,” Mohanty had recently told reporters after he joined BJP.
Despite Mohanty’s induction, the BJP could not keep its flock together as its national council member Shyam Prasad Behera, a strong contender for BJP ticket from Basta, deserted the party and joined the BJD in April first week.
Behera, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2014 assembly poll on a BJP ticket and secured more than 11,000 votes, is seen attending political rallies actively. He has also managed to bring many of his supporters to the BJD camp.
The sitting MLA is hopeful of winning the seat because of his ‘development’ works especially construction of roads and bridges during the last five years. The Rs 5,000-crore Subarnarekha port, foundation stone for which has already been laid, is believed to help the BJD garner support as the port is expected to generate 12,000 employment avenues.
Chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s recent campaign in the constituency was a big hit here, said Sahu.
Though Congress has a base in the constituency, it has not tested victory from the seat in the past three decades. This time, the party has fielded Bijan Kumar Nayak, a young organizer, hoping to wrest the seat due to ‘anti-incumbency’, said an expert.