Odisha 2019 Polls Round 3: A Look At The Heavyweights Of BJD, BJP & Congress

Bhubaneswar: Nine Lok Sabha and 63 Assembly constituencies saw a 'peaceful' battle of ballots in the first two phases. However, in the small period between Round 2 and Round 3, Odisha witnessed deadly attacks on polling officials and leaders and workers of the political parties with bloodshed in many vital constituencies going to the polls tomorrow.

The much-awaited third phase elections is scheduled on April 23 where the fate of candidates from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur constituencies would be sealed.

So far, race for Ghasipura and Bhubaneswar saw a pitched battle during and post campaigning. While OPCC chief Niranjan Patnaik became the target of his rivals in Ghasipura, Bhubaneswar witnessed bullets, bombings and what not.

All eyes will now be on the top contenders in these segments, the eyecatcher being the IAS-IPS battle between BJP's Aparajita Sarangi and BJD's Arup Patnaik in Bhubaneswar. Not to forget, Puri this time has also grabbed the limelight with BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra in the poll fray for the crucial LS seat.

Let's have a look at the heavyweights for Phase-3 elections in Odisha.

Lok Sabha Constituencies:

Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency will see a fight between Aparajita Sarangi (BJP), Arup Patnaik (BJD) and Janardhan Pati from CPI(M), backed by the Congress.

Cuttack parliamentary constituency will witness a battle between former DGP Prakash Mishra (BJP), Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD) and Panchanan Kanungo (Congress).

For the Puri LS seat, BJP heavyweight Sambit Patra will take on BJD's Pinaki Mishra. Congress has fielded its media cell chief Satya Prakash Nayak for the LS segment.

Similarly, Sambalpur is likely to see a contest between BJP's Nitesh Gangdev, BJD's Nalinikanta Pradhan and Congress' Sarat Patnaik.

In Dhenkanal, the battle of ballots will be between Rudra Narayan Pani (BJP), Mahesh Sahu (BJD) and KP Singh Deo (Congress).

Assembly Constituencies:

The most interesting contest would be between Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik and BJD leader Badri Narayan Patra in Ghasipura of Keonjhar. Former OPCC chief Jaydev Jena has been fielded from Anandapur constituency.

BJP's Babu Singh will take on BJD's Ashok Chandra Panda for the Ekamra-Bhubaneswar seat. The saffron party has fielded Aparajita Mohanty from the Bhubaneswar-North constituency. Senior Congress leader Suresh Routray is in the fray for Jatni seat. Another key battle will be seen for Bhubaneswar-Central, where BJP’s Jagannath Pradhan will take on former city mayor Anant Narayan Jena (BJD).

Barabati-Cuttack will witness a contest between Samir Dey (BJP), Mohd Mouqim (Congress) and BJD's Debasish Samantaray.
On the other hand, Sambalpur will see a fight between former minister Jay Narayan Mishra (BJP), Raseswari Panigrahi (BJD) and former VIMSAR director Ashwini Pujahari (Congress).

Among other prominent leaders of different political parties, Debi Prasad Mishra (BJD) from Baramba, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik (BJD) from Khandapada, minister Maheswar Mohanty (BJD) from Puri, Sanjay Das Burma (BJD) and Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra (BJP) from Brahmagiri, Rabinarayan Nayak (BJP) from Kuchinda, Rohit Pujari (BJD) from Rairakhol, Subash Panigrahi (BJP) from Deogarh, Congress' Prasad Harichandan from Satyabadi, Pradeep Maharathy (BJD) from Pipili, Prithviraj Harichandan (BJP) and BJD MLA Prashant Jagdev from Chilika, Surama Padhi (BJP) from Ranpur and BJD's Arun Sahoo from Nayagarh will be contesting in the third phase polls.