Sanat Gartia BJP candidate for Bijepur Assembly bypoll

The BJP on Sunday announced that Sanat Gartia will be the party candidate for Bijepur Assembly by-election in Bargarh district scheduled to be held on October 21. The bypoll in Bijepur assembly seat in Bargarh district was necessitated after BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik resigned from the seat and retained the Hinjili assembly segment in Ganjam district. Patnaik had won two seats in the last assembly elections.

Gartia's name has been finalised by the central election committee of the BJP, a party statement here said. Gartia had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls held earlier this year as a BJP nominee from Bijepur but lost to BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He lost to Patnaik by a margin of 57,122 votes in the assembly polls held along with the Lok Sabha elections.

With BJP naming its candidate, battle lines are now drawn for Bijepur located in Bargarh district in West Odisha as both the ruling BJD and opposition Congress have already announced their nominees for the bypoll. While BJD has named Rita Sahu as its candidate for the by-election, Congress has announced the name of Dillip Kumar Panda. With the three major political parties announcing the names of the candidates, Bijepur is all set to witness a triangular contest.

While Patnaik has said the assembly segment would be in the "focus for welfare and development", BJP and Congress leaders are of the view that local issues and farmers' problems will play a major role in the by-election Rita Sahu had contested a by-election in 2018 as the ruling BJD candidate and won the Bijepur seat after the death of her husband and then Congress MLA Subal Sahu. The last date for filing nomination papers is Monday while the scrutiny will be held on October 1.

The counting of votes will be held on October 24. There are 2,32,005 eligible voters in 285 polling booths in the assembly constituency..