BHUBANESWAR: The three main political parties have started groundwork for by-poll to Bijepur Assembly segment anticipating announcement of the polling date by the Election Commission of India soon. The by-poll is expected towards the end of October.
Sources in the BJD said the Chief Minister has already started meeting leaders from Western Odisha and observers of Bargarh district to discuss strategies.
Though the BJD camp is confident of a victory in the by-poll, the surge in popularity of BJP in the area witnessed during the 2019 elections has made the fight a prestige issue.
The Chief Minister had won from two Assembly constituencies in the 2019 elections and vacated Bijepur while retaining Hinjili.
Though Rita Sahu, wife of former Congress MLA Subal Sahu from the constituency, has emerged a frontrunner for BJD ticket for the by-poll, there seem to be several other contenders.
Prominent among them are former Bargarh MP Prabhas Singh and former BJP leader Subhas Chouhan who joined BJD ahead of the 2019 elections.
Sources in the BJD maintained that a decision in this regard will be announced by the Chief Minister after consultation with all leaders. Sahu had won the by-poll from Bijepur in February 2018 after the seat fell vacant following the death of Subal Sahu, who was the sitting Congress MLA.
The BJP also started preparing strategy for the by-poll and a number of meetings have already been held in this regard.
Apart from Sanat Kumar Gartia, who lost to the Chief Minister, the committee saw the potential in former MLA from Padampur, Pradip Purohit.
The former Padampur MLA had lost the 2019 Assembly elections to former minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha.
Meanwhile, a committee of senior Congress leaders headed by party veteran Narasingh Mishra has already visited Bijepur to interact with people to assess the situation and take feedback on their choice of party nominee.
The Congress candidate will be finalised basing on the report of the committee. Sources, however, maintained that former minister Ripunath Seth has emerged a front runner for Congress ticket.
Frontrunners:
BJD camp
Rita Sahu, wife of former Congress MLA Subal Sahu
Prabhas Singh, former Bargarh MP
Subhas Chouhan, who joined BJD ahead of 2019 elections
BJP camp
Sanat Kumar Gartia, who lost to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
Pradip Purohit, former MLA from Padampur
Cong face
Ripunath Seth, former minister