Jatni, Aug 8: Political aspirants have started making rounds across the Jatni assembly constituency ahead of the 2024 elections.
Veteran Congress MLA Suresh Kumar Routray (80) has announced to quit active politics and field his son Mamath Routray in 2024 in his place.
He has won six times from the Jatni seat. After three times defeats in 2004, 2009, and 2014, he came back for the sixth time in 2019 while the Congress failed to win a seat in coastal districts.
However, political rumors are doing rounds that the junior Routray will contest on a BJD ticket despite his father's tall claims that Congress will give the ticket to his son.
On the other hand, former BJD MLA and party's district president Bibhuti Bhushan Balabantaray is the main lobbyist for the party ticket. The party performed well in last year's municipality and panchayat polls under his leadership. The BJD also managed to snatch away the Jatni municipality from the Congress.
Another BJD aspirant for the constituency is Santosh Jena who was recently expelled for his involvement in anti-party activities.
Similarly, Bibhuti Bhushan Balabantaray's close aide, former Zilla parishad member, and husband of Jatni block chairman, Bijay Chhotray name is also rumored among other aspirants for the BJD ticket.
Bibhuti won the seat in 2009. He was replaced by Bhagirathi Badajena in 2014, who was not in the limelight.
On the other hand, Sudipta Ray and Biswaranjan Badajena are front runners for the BJP tickets in the constituency. The BJP secured a good vote percentage last time. BJP candidate got 26,256 votes in 2019 which was 17,085 in 2014.
