Bhubaneswar, Apr 15: It could be called a battle royale, indeed. Odisha’s Balasore Lok Sabha seat this time promises an interesting triangular contest as three major political parties – the state’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress have fielded potential candidates in the fray.

A five to 7 per cent swing in favour of a candidate might tilt the balance in his or her favour.

The BJP has fielded ex-Union Minister and sitting lawmaker Pratap Chandra Sarangi while Srikant Kumar Jena, former Union Parliamentary And Tourism Minister, is l vying for the honour on a Congress ticket. The BJD has landed BJP turncoat Lekhashree Samantasinghar.

Balasore has always offered interesting results as the voters have not shown permanent loyalty to any political party or candidate.

In 2009, Srikant Kumar Jena won, though got only 35.17 per cent votes, went on to win the Balasore seat by defeating his nearest rival Arun Dey of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by a margin of 38,900 votes. Dey got 30.84 per cent of the total 8,92,263 votes polled. The second runner-up Mahameghabahan Aira Kharabela Swain got 24.64 per cent votes.

In the 2014 elections, Biju Janata Dal candidate Rabindra Kumar Jena defeated Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Pratap Chandra Sarangi by a margin of 1,41,825 votes.

In 2014, BJD’s Rabindra Jena won the seat by bagging 4,33,768 votes (41.33 per cent). He defeated Pratap Chandra Sarangi of BJP with 2,91,943 votes (27.81 votes). The incumbent lawmaker Srikant Kumar Jena finished third with 2,77,517 votes (26.44 per cent).

The 2019 general elections saw BJP’s Pratap Chandra Sarangi registering the victory by defeating Rabindra Kumar Jena of BJD by a margin of 12,956 votes. Sarangi got 41.79 per cent votes while Rabindra got 40.62 per cent votes. Congress’ Nabajyoti Patnaik got 15.49 per cent votes.

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The sitting BJP lawmaker Pratap Chandra Sarangi expresses confidence that the good work of the BJP-led NDA government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s special focus on the development of Odisha would help him sail through the polls.

Srikant Kumar Jena, the Congress nominee, claimed that the development work he carried out in Balasore during his stint as Union Parliamentary And Tourism Minister between 2009 and 2014 would enable him to win the seat this time.

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