Bhubaneswar, Feb 21: As the election fervor heats up in the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency of Odisha, several heavyweight leaders from major political parties are vying for the coveted party tickets. Let’s take a closer look at the contenders
The sitting BJD MP, Ramesh Majhi, is eager to contest the upcoming election once again as the BJD candidate. Pradeep Majhi, who recently joined BJD, is also in the race for the BJD ticket.
The decision on the BJD candidate for Nabarangpur is yet to be finalized.
The two former BJP MPs, Balbhadra Majhi and Parsuram Majhi are competing for the BJP ticket this time.
Similarly, former Dabugaon MLA, Bhujabal Majhi, is in the race for the Congress ticket. Sisir Gomango, son of a former Chief Minister, Giridhar Gonngo,who recently rejoined the Congress, is also eyeing the MP ticket.
Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat was once a stronghold of the Congress party. Khagapati Pradhani had an impressive record, winning the election consecutively nine times from 1967 to 1998.
In 1999 and 2004, the BJP-BJD alliance successfully dismantled the Congress bastion. Parsuram Majhi became the MP from Nabarangpur.
In 2009, Congress leader Pradeep Majhi was elected from Nabarangpur.
In 2014, BJD fielded engineer Balabhadra Majhi, who clined victory. However, in 2019, due to differences of opinion, Balabhadra left BJD and joined BJP. In his place, BJD fielded the then Jharigaon MLA Ramesh Majhi, who won by a significant margin.
Now it is a big question as to whether BJD will repeat Ramesh Majhi or field Pradeep Majhi as its nominee in the ensuing election.
