BJD, Congress begin nominee selection exercise

NABARANGPUR: The political parties in the district are pulling out all the stops to strengthen their support base ahead of the Umerkote bypoll on November 30.  Umerkote Assembly constituency consists of Raighar block with 24 gram panchayats, Umerkote block’s eight gram panchayats and the Umerkote NAC. The constituency has 1,71,244 voters. Raighar block has the highest number of 1,03,359 voters. The eight gram panchayats of Umerkote block have 38,921 voters and the NAC has 28,921 voters. The primitive tribal group, Gond, with more than 60 per cent voters, is the dominating community in the segment that will tilt scales in any elections. Besides, the Bengali community that has spread over 43 villages, is having 15 per cent voters and will also play an important role.  Sources said even the Maoists who have established a base in the region are likely to influence the bypoll. While the BJD and Congress are yet to announce their nominees, the BJP has recently declared Dharmu Gond as its candidate at the State Election Committee meeting of the party. The Committee has announced a three-member panel _ Basant Panda, Parsuram Majhi and Ramesh Sahoo _ to oversee the conduct of the elections. The BJD high command has already deputed four ministers - Suryanarayan Patro, Vikram Arukh, Lal Behari Himirika and Ramesh Majhi - to the district to interact with the party workers and people to assess the present support base of the party and shortlist the aspirants. Sources said the BJD legislator and former minister Arabinda Dhali has also made visits to Bengali-dominated villages. It is learnt that a report will be submitted to the party high command following which, the Chief Minister is likely to announce  nominee. Meanwhile, the Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik has also deputed a five-member team led by legislator Damburudhar Ulka to gauge his party’s condition and take views of party workers on selection of candidate. Local Congress MP Pradeep Majhi said the party would announce its candidate in four to five days. In the last election, BJD won the seat by securing 44,326 votes. The BJP with 30,155 votes had come second and the Congress could garner just 25,512 votes.