Jharsuguda bypoll: Booth management in focus; BJP, BJD & Congress pull out all stops  

With booth management being the focus of all political parties in the ensuing Jharsuguda bypoll, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Odisha Prabhari Sunil Bansal, who was on a one-day visit to the State on Sunday, gave mantra to party’s candidate and workers. 

Bansal had a meeting with the members of the core committee. The meeting lasted for about two hours. He had a brainstorming session with party chief Manmohan Samal, former president Samir Mohanty, MPs Jual Oram and Suresh Pujari and party candidate Tankadhar Tripathy. 

This apart, Bansal taught mantras of success to booth-level workers at Kolabira and Municipality. 

“In this Jharsuguda by-election, the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Tankadhar Tripathy as its candidate. All our leaders and workers are doing their parts in this election. I believe that BJP will win the election,” said Bansal. 

On the other hand, here the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), despite having the sympathy of voters, is reportedly in tension. Because of this, a phalanx of party leaders is camping here. 

Yesterday, the party’s position at every booth was analysed in the presence of party’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das. 
While, two party vice presidents- Debi Prasad Mishra and Prasanna Acharya- have been given the charge of election management, three to four ministers and MLAs are looking after the block-level affairs. 

The grand old party Congress is not behind either. PCC chief Sarat Pattanayak has camped in Jharsuguda since the nomination filing day. The Congress is too laying emphasis on booth management here. 

“Campaigning is going on. Door-to-door campaigns, meetings, and conferences are also going on. We had meetings at Kirmira and Kolabira. Our ministers are guiding the workers,” said Debi Prasad Mishra, BJD Vice President. 

“We are taking proper care of booth management. Our 80 members are now in the field. Each member is assigned two to three booths. More 30 to 40 workers and MLAs are reaching,” said Sarat Pattanayak.