All eyes are now on the Nilagiri Assembly constituency as all three major political parties are yet to nominate their candidate for this seat.
Why the political parties are delaying the announcement? Whatever may be the reason, such delay has left the aspiring candidates of the three political parties on tenterhooks.
Two leaders of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) are in the race for the ticket for the Nilagiri seat. The party may give the ticket to either the last election’s candidate Santosh Khatua or sitting MLA Sukant Nayak. Sukant Nayak was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly on a BJD ticket in 2014. Ahead of the 2019 elections, he resigned from the BJD and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was re-elected on a BJP ticket.
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And ahead of the 2024 elections, he resigned from the BJP and joined BJD.
If the party nominates Nayak, the Santosh Khatua group may raise a red flag. The party appears to be brainstorming on who would be the better option, leading to the prevailing suspense.
Because of this suspense, neither Nayak nor Khatua has undertaken full-scale campaigning.
At the same time, the fate of Tapas Nayak, who is hoping for a BJP ticket, is no different either. Since the party is yet to announce the name of its candidate for the Nilagiri seat, he is not able to launch his campaign.
Similarly, Akshay Acharya, a Congress aspirant is in two minds about starting his campaigning as the party leaders are still putting their brains together to pick up the candidate.
So far, the BJP, BJD and Congress have announced their candidates for 144, 140 and 145 seats respectively.