By D N Singh
Padampur by-election slugfest has started amid a suspended animation that, which of the two factors are going to decide the outcome.
Is it the people or the farmers who are on a virtual course of agitation over farm crop insurance. None of the two can be ignored.
Rest depends as to what extent the parties in the fray can placate the ruffled feathers of the farmers.
Before the others get into their acts, the chief minister of Odisha has already announced a crop insurance package of Rs.200 cr. That must go a long way to lessen the intensity of the anger of the irked farmers.
That leaves the main rival, the BJP, a little worried and it has been trying to get some mileage from the farmers’ agitation.
Coming back to the politics at the ground, acceptance of people matters a lot and Naveen Patnaik has obviously an enviable reputation as a popular leader.
May be some tactical error led the BJD to suffer in the Dhamnagar by-poll but, it may not be so in the ensuing by-poll.
Like in the times of elections people make it to the temples for blessings, this time the political parties made it to the farmers’ agitation site. For their blessings before the filing of the nominations. That amply speaks how much leverage the farmers have this time.
It is a fight between one time MLA Pradip Purohit of the BJP and the BJD greenhorn Barsharani Singh Barriah, daughter of the deceased Bijay Ranjan Singh Barriah.
On the other is Pradip Purohit, who is in a mind to go all out to wrest his place again.
Although there have been 13 nominations filed in the end, but the parties in the main fray are the above two.
It was a stitch in time that the BJD has been able to smoother the barbs of some agitating leaders who all wanted to fight as independents else it would have been an Achilles’ heel for all.
Besides the point, this by-poll is considered politically significant as it is the last major electoral battle in the state before the 2024 general elections. The BJD will try to bag the seat and seek revenge from the BJP for its loss of Dhamnagar in the recent by-election.
