By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: With the incumbent Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty now nowhere in the scene since her marital discord with his estranged actress wife, Varsha Priyadarshini come to fore and no headway to their legal battle over divorce, the ruling BJD is seriously contemplating to field one its powerful and popular Minister Pratap Keshari Deb against BJP’s strong and veteran face, Baijayant Jay Panda in the ensuing 2024 Parliamentary polls.
Sources close to BJD revealed that, the Party wants strong leaders for Lok Sabha seats like Kendrapara, Puri, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Dhenkanal to check BJP’s Jay Panda, Dr Sambit Patra, Aparajita Sarangi and Dharmendra Pradhan and amid sitting MP Bhartuhari Mahatab distancing himself from BJD, the regional outfit is looking for a clean face for Cuttack Lok Sabha seats.
Sources said following such grapevines hits media headlines. Pratap Deb is representing Aul Assembly seat for the 4th terms and served twice in Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s Cabinet including the present stint with Industry, Energy and MSME Departments, besides, Deb, also served in Rajya Sabha.
Sources said, BJD is eyeing on 2 former MLAs of Aul Deba Sharma of Congress and Dola Nayak of BJP and if Pratap Deb finally, picked up for Lok Sabha, one of the former MLAs of Aul, may be fielded as BJD candidate. Sources also maintained that it would be very difficult for Pratap Deb in future if any of the former MLAs of Aul joined the BJD and become Party’s MLA candidate.
BJD’s planning to field Pratap Deb against BJP’s National VP Jay Panda in Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat, assumed greater significance amid speculations of possible candidature of Sujata Kartikeyan , who is presently Mission Shakti chief and wife of all powerful 5T Secretary VK Pandian.
Since Baijayant Panda has good support base and personal networks, ruling BJD wants a strong face against him and the junior scion of Aul royal family is a good option for BJD, source said quoting media grapevines.
For Puri , BJD may opt Nayagarh MLA Arun Sahoo if incumbent Pinaki Mishra denied tickets, sources said. BJD also eying on Police Commissioner S Priyadarshi for Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, if that happened, Priyadarshi either will take VR or resigned from service. For Dhenkanal, BJD is looking for a strong face to check possible candidature of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
