Can Nuapada bypoll signal a Congress comeback in Odisha politics?

The Congress party has been working hard to seed a political network to make the party a force against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha. Although it has developed clarity on the dos and don'ts in the state to gather an audience, it is now focusing on the upcoming bypoll in Naupada constituency. The assembly seat will go for polls on November 11, making it a first after the 2024 assembly elections to decide who is powerful in electoral politics as of today. 

 

Congress's main challenger in the bypolls is the BJP, which has 'imported' a candidate from Biju Janata Dal leader Rajendra Dholakia's lineage, whose death necessitated the bypolls. It was widely believed that it would be the BJD that would field Dholakia's son, Jay Dholakia, and retain the family seat, banking on the family's goodwill in the constituency. However, the regional heavyweight had to finally declare former minister Snehangini Chhuria as its candidate. 

 

Rajendra Dholakia was a popular legislator and former minister known for his philanthropy. He died on September 8 following complications from a heart transplant treatment. 

 

The Congress is working at the grassroots to build messaging discipline and is also trying to build the seat as a sample constituency for the state's 147 assembly segments; due to which the party has concentrated its workforce in the region and is working with a greater goal in mind. 

 

A senior Congress leader said, "There is much work left to be done, but this time we have an edge. We have been working every month of this year to strengthen our cadre. Our rank and file are upbeat about any political occasion. What has made our work easy is the momentum on our side."

 

The party leadership had also made sure that the deserving candidate gets the opportunity to contest the elections from the seat; therefore, inducted an independent candidate, Ghasiram Majhi, to contest on the Congress ticket. Majhi replaces former state unit president Sarat Pattnayak, who had scored just around 15,000 votes and ranked distant fourth in the last assembly elections.

 

Majhi turned out to be a main challenger to the BJD's winning candidate Rajendra Dholakia, who scored around 62,000 votes in the 2024 assembly elections. He won the seat by a margin of about 11,000 votes; Majhi gained around 51,000 votes.

 

Given Majhi's track record, he appears to hold more grip on the constituency mathematically, if the Congress's 15,000 and his own 51,000 votes are combined. 

 

A senior Congress leader said, "Congress is working with full might. Notably, the state unit president has taken responsibility of all the activities in the constituency. He knows that if Congress loses, it will be on him, and all the hard work put in till now will mean nothing. So he has become extra busy. Moreover, the party has managed dissent and is working towards the united goal of winning with a greater margin than expected."

 

The election will see 19 candidates contesting in total, according to the Election Commission, out of which 11 are independents.

India