Bhubaneswar, April 30 :The Aul assembly seat in Odisha is indeed witnessing an intriguing contest among three diverse candidates: a king, a doctor, and a police personnel.
Pratap Keshari Dev, the incumbent MLA, has been nominated by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for the Aul seat.
He is a veteran leader and has held this seat four times in the past.
Interestingly, Pratap Dev was also the erstwhile king of Aul.
Dr. Debasmita Sharma, daughter of former Aul MLA Debendra Sharma, is the Congress candidate.
She resigned from her government job as a doctor at the primary health center in Kandiahat under Rajkanika of Kendrapada district to contest the election.
Although this is her first time running for office, she has been actively involved in politics as a youth Congress leader.
Her grandfather, Dibakar Nath Sharma, was also an MLA on the Congress ticket.
In the 2014 election, her father, Debendra Sharma, defeated heavyweight BJD leader Pratap Keshari Deb, but he lost to BJD candidate Pratap Keshari in 2019.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has nominated Krushna Chandra Panda, retired police personnel, as its candidate.
Panda voluntarily retired from service in 2017 and has since actively engaged in local politics.
He currently holds the post of vice president of the Kendrapada BJP.
The Aul constituency promises an interesting battle among these three distinct contenders – the king, the doctor, and the police personnel – in the upcoming election. It will be fascinating to see how their backgrounds and experiences shape the outcome
