With less than a month left for the byolls for two Assembly seats in Odisha, the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party have fielded sons of the deceased MLAs, who had represented Tirtol and Balasore Sadar seats.
The ruling BJD on Monday announced Bijaya Shankar Das for Tirtol represented by his father late Bishnu Charan Das.
He would cross swords with BJP candidate Rajkishore Behera, who had left the Congress recently, in the reserved seat for Scheduled Caste candidates.
The BJP fielded Manas Kumar Dutta in Balasore Sadar seat which fell vacant after his father former MLA Madan Mohan Dutta had died of cardiac arrest in June last. Swarup Kumar Das, who had a successful stint in the civic body elections, is BJD candidate.
The two next generation politicians in their early thirties have already plunged into campaign trail seeking votes in the name of their late fathers.
Bishnu Charan Das, a veteran BJD leader, had won Tirtol in 2019. But he had won the Jagatsinghpur seat for five consecutive times between 1990 and 2014. He was a Minister in the Naveen Patnaik government and was also elected to the Upper House of Parliament. Known for his organisational calibre, the late BJD leader had huge following in Jagatsinghpur district.
Bijay Kumar exuded confidence that his victory margin would be 50,000. “However, our key issues will be unemployment and issues of farmers which were duly addressed by the BJD government,” he said.
On the other hand, Manas Kumar said, “My father was very popular in Balasore. He was always available when people needed him the most. I have confidence on the good will my father used to carry.” Madan Mohan Dutta, as BJP candidate, had won the Balasore Sadar seat for the first time in 2019.
October 16 will be the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny of nominations is scheduled on October 17 and October 19 will be the last date for withdrawal of candidature. The polls will be conducted on November 3 and counting will take place on November 10.
