Given the perceived ‘Modi wave’ and popularity of Naveen, it is not likely to be a tough situation for congress to be in Race in Balasore, even though it is regarded as a strong fort for the party in the past.
While the congress candidate Navjyoti patnaik and his father Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee chief Niranjan Patnaik face arrest in the 2017 case Ponzi scheme, An FIR has been lodged against them. Navjyoti patnaik is also accused of misappropriating Rs 6 Crore from funds given to him for the company.
A fraud case has been registered against them and they have been charged with section 420 of the IPC and a notice has been issued to them by the police.
The duo has been charged with looting Rs 32 crores as the directors of VAVASI Telecom (P) ltd from Mr KS Ahluwalia. The company has also given in writhing that Navjyoti patnaik has misappropriated Rs 6 crores of the 32 crores that Ahluwalia had given to them.
Beside Navjyoti is seen as a outsider,a classic case of Dynasty politics,Congress party is known for
Political analyst feel,Navjyoti was never been in active politics,He was given ticket by his father PCC Chief ,who himself is contesting from two Assembly Seats Bhandaripokhari and Ghasipura
The Congress in Odisha has flattered to circumvent, yet again. With three of the four rounds of polling over, the grand old party has all but abandoned its hopes of coming back to power in the state after nearly two decades.
Congress was continued on a high till a month ago after the victories in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in December,until PCC Chief Niranjan Pattnaik threw his ammu and pulled out from race of Royal Battle, General Election 2019 the reason Niranjan knows better
Besides this it is sure that the patnaik will face a stiff fight here from the sitting BJD MP Rabindra Jena because of his popularity in rural areas and also in urban. The development work done by Jena has pulled a good mass for him in the constituency.
Jena caught in Crossfire between Political Parties on Chit Fund issue got notice from CBI for Personal appearance, had to knock door of High Court to get relieve
BJP Candidate Pratap Sadangi former Nilgiri MLA who had lost to Jena in 2014 by a margin of nearly 1lakh 42 thousands votes, never thought of contesting from Balasore Parliamentary seat again and wanted to return to Nilgiri Assembly seat,until Party High Command zeroed in his name and proposed his name for Balasore
After the exit of former Union Minister Srikant Jena from the party the coastal district got Navjyoti as a leader. But the party cadre is dissatisfied on his appointment as he being a outsider in the region. People fear that after elections Navjyoti may not be available for them.
Besides this many party workers who cannot raise their voice as Navjyoti being son of PCC chief, has started a revolt and are persuading voters to vote for BJD or BJP.
Apart from this exit of old cadres like subhankar Mohapatra, Debi chand, jay narayan Mohanty has also chunked a large vote bank of the India’s grand old party in the area.
Urban voters likely dissatisfied with the congress regime and corruption and anti national charges are seeing motivating towards BJP or BJD.
Result of various factors it is going to be a tough situation for Navjyoti to win after corruption and fraud charges on him.
