Winds of Poll Campaign Grip Odisha’s Nuapada Assembly Constituency
Chief Minister Mohan Majhi and ex-CM Naveen Patnaik to hit the campaign trail.
Nuapada: Vast stretches of farmland across the Nuapada assembly constituency have turned golden with ripening paddy ready for harvest. As farmers toil under an overcast sky—threatening intermittent rain from Cyclone Montha’s remnants—they find time between their labour to discuss another pressing issue: the high-stakes bypoll scheduled for November 11.
Despite the rigours of the harvest season, conversations across village courtyards and paddy fields are animated with political debate. Farmers are divided over which candidate is best equipped to address their grievances and fulfil their expectations.
Some villagers express confidence in Jay Dholakia, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, while others favour Ghasiram Majhi of the Congress or Snehangini Chhuria of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
“Jay Dholakia has a good chance this time,” says Ratnakar Chandrakar, a farmer from Bhaleswar village. “People want continuity of the development work initiated by his father, late Rajendra Dholakia, and will support the BJP government led by Mohan Majhi.”
His friend Motiram Sunani disagrees. “Jay betrayed the people by joining the BJP. His father was a BJD leader, and that doesn’t mean his supporters will automatically switch sides,” he argues.
For Bhupendra Majhi, a tribal farmer, the Congress nominee appears more promising. “Ghasiram is a son of the soil and a committed tribal leader. He has fought Assembly elections four times, always standing by us through thick and thin. This time, people will reward his perseverance,” he says.
In the 2019 polls, Ghasiram Majhi contested as an Independent after being denied a Congress ticket, securing 50,941 votes, just 10,881 short of BJD’s Rajendra Dholakia, who won with 61,822 votes.
As campaign posters and banners of the BJP, BJD, and Congress crowd every street corner, Nuapada has begun to reverberate with slogans and campaign songs blasting from loudspeakers.
According to party sources, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will soon join the campaign to drum up support for the BJP candidate. Meanwhile, former CM and BJD president Naveen Patnaik is expected to visit the constituency twice—on November 3 and 5—to boost his party’s prospects.
The Congress campaign, on the other hand, is being led by Odisha PCC president Bhakta Charan Das and AICC Odisha in-charge Ajay Kumar Lallu.
Nuapada constituency has a total of 2,53,624 registered voters—1,24,108 men, 1,29,495 women, and 21 belonging to the third gender category—making it a closely contested and politically significant seat in western Odisha.