Bhubaneswar, Jan 9: After a 10-year gap, BJD vice-president and Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya once has again plunged into Rairakhol politics. He has been active in Rairakhol ahead of the forthcoming assembly election.
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Prasanna has indirectly given hints to contest the forthcoming assembly election from here. Recently, he made an offering ‘Rudrabhisheka’ in Nilakantheswar Temple of Kholagarh of Nakatideula block of this constituency followed by a feast in which hundreds of party leaders and workers participated. This has triggered many speculations in the area.
Prasanna Acharya had pledged there to serve the area till his last breath. Earlier, in 2009 he was elected from here on BJD ticket and became the finance minister in Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet.
On the other hand, the current BJD MLA and District BJD unit president Rohit Pujari is also trying to taste his luck for the third time from Rairakhol. He was elected in 2014 and 2019 from this seat as the BJD candidate.But, Pujari was dropped from Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet a few months ago. He has indirectly declared to contest the assembly election from this seat again.
Apart from these two leaders, the list of aspirants in BJD is too long. Kendu Leaf Welfare Board advisor Sanjit Mohanty, former District BJD President Pramod Rath, Rairakhol block chairman Pradeep Pradhan, and Rairakhol BJD block president Udit Tripathy are in the race for BJD ticket.
In the BJP, the former party candidate Debendra Mohapatra is the front-runner for the party ticket. Another aspirant, Gobinda Agrawal, has also mobilized the party workers for the last 20 years and is also in the race.
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On the other hand, Assaf Ali Khan of Congress, who has been continously contesting from this seat since 2009, stood second in the last three elections. He is still an aspirant for fighting the coming election
