BHUBANESWAR: Three consecutive defeats under the present party leadership and history not being on its side, stakes are quite high for the Congress in Athgarh. Despite the hype, party’s performance in the Kendrapara municipality election, Umerkote Assembly by-poll and the recent panchayat polls has remained dismal and Athgarh too looks an impregnable fort.As it plans to unleash a high-voltage campaign for the bypoll, the party has lined up several top-notch leaders to criss-cross the constituency. AICC secretary Vinay Kumar Sorake, accompanied by State party chief Niranjan Patnaik, addressed several meetings. State in-charge Jagdish Tytler would also campaign in Athgarh. As of now, the campaign is heavily weighed in favour of BJD’s strongman Ranendra Pratap Swain. Even though the Congress and the BJP have fielded candidates, both do not have much base in the constituency. Since 2000 when BJD came to power in the State, Athgarh has voted for that party.Congress candidate Suresh Mohapatra had earlier contested Assembly elections twice unsuccessfully from Cuttack-Barabati and Cuttack City in 2009 and 2004 respectively.In 2009, Swain’s nomination papers had been rejected during scrutiny. But the BJD backed independent candidate Ramesh Rout romped home defeating another independent candidate Bichitrananda Muduli.Rout secured 68,881 votes against 43,371 votes polled by Muduli. Congress candidate Subas Mohanty and Rama Narayan Mohanty (BJP) had lost their deposits by polling 7376 and 3355 votes respectively. In the 2004 Assembly polls, when BJD was an ally of BJP, the fight was between Swain and independent candidate Muduli who was the rebel Congress candidate. While Swain polled 70,720 votes, Muduli garnered 32,068. Congress candidate Bibhuti Bhusan Mishra was relegated to the third with 29,216 votes.Swain had defeated Congress stalwart and former chief minister JB Patnaik in 2000 by over 40,000 votes. Patnaik was elected from the constituency in 1985 Assembly election.Sources in the Congress said the party aims to improve its vote share in the constituency. The party has planned a high-pitched campaign to revive the party in the constituency.The other candidates from the constituency are Bikram Das (BJP), Brototi Chatterjee (Utkal Bharat), Gagan Behari Rout (Samruddha Odisha), Anam Chandra Mohapatra, Subas Sahoo, Bijay Biswal, Bhagirathi Rout and Ranjan Mishra (Independents).
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