Congress hopes to put up fight in Pipili bypoll

Bishwokeshan Harichandan Mohapatra

BHUBANESWAR: The Congress, which has been hamstrung by the death of Ajit Mangaraj just days ahead of the Pipili bypoll, and was forced to field Bishwokeshan Harichandan Mohapatra in his place, said it would try to put up a fight in the byelection scheduled on May 16. Mohapatra, an advocate by profession and associated with Congress Seva Dal, will file his nomination paper on Monday.
Briefing reporters here, veteran Congress leader Suresh Routray said Mohapatra is a good choice. “We had planned to field someone from Mangaraj’s family. But since none was interested to contest in the election, we have fielded Mohapatra based on suggestions of local Congress workers. We will try to reach out to voters through door-to-door campaign and try to give a good fight in the bypoll,” said Routray.
In the 2019 assembly election, the Congress had finished a distant third, managing just 9,830 votes, which accounted for 5.63% of the total votes polled. Mangaraj was the Congress candidate in the 2019 assembly election.
Senior BJP leader Prithiviraj Harichandan said Congress has no base in Pipili and the byelection will witness a direct fight between the BJP and the BJD.
Senior BJD leader Umakanta Samantaray said the BJD has already started door-to-door campaign as per the norms of the election commission and the party is confident of increasing its vote margin in Pipili.

Inspired By