By Our Correspondent
KENDRAPARA/BHUBANESWAR: From the beginning to end, BJD headed and finally close to win the seat by a huge margin. Now Sabitri Agarwal’s name added in probable Minister list , apart from Pratap Deb, Atanu Nayak and Sashi Behera from Kendrapara in Naveen Patnaik’s 5.0 Cabinet. Agarwalla was leading by 17,234 votes against BJP nominee Bijoy Mohapatra after 16th phase counting of votes.
BJP-BJD’s Extramarital Affairs’ causes Bjay Mohapatra’s Debacle in Patkura. With this, it was 5th defeat of Mohapatra after being sacked from BJD way back in 2000.
The poll results will decide the fate of 10 candidates in fray. BJD candidate Sabitri Agarwalla, BJP nominee Bijoy Mohapatra and Jayant Mohanty of Congress are the prominent candidates.
Mohapatra, a four-time MLA and one of the founders of the BJD, was ousted from the party by Patnaik just before the 2000 Assembly polls after a bitter rift. Since then, it is said that Patnaik has made it a prestige issue to keep Mohapatra out of the Assembly, who has not won a single election since.
According to reports from the time, Mohapatra formed his own party, Odisha Gana Parishad in 2001, which managed to win 3 out of four seats it contested in alliance with Congress; the only seat the party lost was Mohapatra’s.
Mohapatra later merged his party with the Nationalist Congress Party, but was forced to resign after NCP decided to ally with BJD in 2009 elections. He had a difficult run with the BJP too, from where he had resigned in December 2018. But he was coaxed back into party by another BJD-cast out and now a BJP leader, Baijayant Panda.
