Balangir, Oct 26: Odisha Congress won in two places out of five Assembly seats in Balangir district in 2019 and this time, the grand old party has strong hold in three seats.
Now Narasingh Mishra is the seating MLA of Balangir and Santosh Singh Saluja is representing Kantabanji. Besides, the party has stronghold in Titlagarh.
The party was in third position in two other constituencies of the district – Patnagarh and Loisingha and the vote percentage has been declining for the last 15 years.
Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra has won the Balangir seat consecutively for the last two terms. This time he is getting ready to field his son Samarendra Mishra due to old age. Vote percentage of Congress has been rising in the seat. Laxman Meher had secured 38.24 percent vote in 2009 that rose to 39.83 percent in 2014 and further to 41.32 percent in 2019 during Mishra's incumbency .
However, Congress vote percent has been fluctuating in Kantabanji. Santosh Singh Saluja got 43 percent vote in 2009 that reduced to 29.43 percent in 2014 and BJD won the seat with 31.65 percent vote. Saluja returned to power with 33.60 percent vote in 2019.
Though BJP has been winning the Titlagarh constituency, Congress has been giving tough fight. Congress candidate Surendra Singh Bhoi had won the seat with 39.16 percent votes in 2009 and secured second position in 2014 and 2019 with 33.86 percent and 29.14 percent votes respectively.
Bhoi managed to win the Saintala block in panchayat polls last year. The infighting in BJP is going to help Congress in 2014.
