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Tough fight for Orissa veterans

By Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR, APRIL 25. The fate of several political heavyweights of Orissa will be decided when the remaining 10 Lok Sabha seats and 70 Assembly segments of the State go to the polls in the second phase on Monday.

The electioneering for the second phase polls came to an end on Saturday evening. There are 46 candidates for the Lok Sabha and 385 for the Assembly.

Prominent among those fighting the Lok Sabha polls are the Union Water Resources Minister, Arjun Charan Sethi, the Union Minister of State for Steel, Braja Kishore Tripathy, and the former Union Minister, Srikanta Jena.

While Mr. Sethi and Mr. Tripathy are the nominees of the ruling Biju Janata Dal and are fighting the polls from Bhadrak and Puri respectively, Mr. Jena is contesting from Kendrapara on Congress ticket.

The other prominent leaders who are contesting the Lok Sabha polls are the Pradesh Congress Committee president, J. B. Patnaik's wife, Jayanti Patnaik, and Mr. Patnaik's son-in-law, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. While Ms. Patnaik is fighting from Cuttack, her son-in-law is contesting from the Bhubaneswar seat.

Several stalwarts are also fighting for different Assembly segments. While the Chief Minister and BJD president, Naveen Patnaik, is contesting from Hinjili seat under Aska Parliamentary constituency, the OPCC president is trying his luck in the Begunia segment that comes under the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat. Niranjan Patnaik, elder brother of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, too is fighting the polls from Ramachandrapur segment. The stakes are high for the Patnaik clan as all the four are facing tough challenge from the nominees of the BJD-BJP coalition. The PCC chief may find it difficult to hold onto his post for long, if they fail at the hustings. The Congress leader and former Union Minister, K. C. Lenka, is contesting from the Choudwar Assembly segment. Mr. Lenka may emerge the victor as the seat is witnessing a triangular fight. The two other contenders are the BJD candidate, Dharmananda Behera, and Bidhubhushan Praharaj.

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