Bhubaneswar, Nov 11: Election is around the corner. Congress is now searching for the right candidate in the north Bhubaneswar assembly constituency. As the party position is not so good, deteriorating year by year, the veterans and known figures are reluctant to come forward for the coming election. On the other hand, some new faces and youth leaders are keen to contest this election.
As an aspirant, the party spokesperson Krushna Chandta PatI is going around different areas of the constituency and mobilizing the party workers. Recently he held a meeting in ward no-9 with the party workers and decided to go to the doorstep of voters. Similarly, name of another Congress leader Ashok Das, the president of Bhubaneswar Block Congress, is doing rounds as an aspirant. Besides, names of earlier candidates of this constituency Manoranjan Dash and Kishore Jena could not be excluded . Although both leaders are not so active in this area their clout in the party is still intact.
Now, fall in votebank is the main concern for Congress. While in 2009 the party got about 12 percent of votes in the constituency, in 2014 it declined to 7% and in 2019 it could get only 4 percent of votes and stood at third position. The abysmal performance of the grand old party is a worry . It is also a great concern for the party to reorganise the workers at the grassroots level so as to fight against the mighty BJD and BJP in the coming assembly election in 2024.
