With few well-known leaders left, Janardan Dehuri, the president of the Sundargarh district Congress committee (SDCC), faces a big challenge as the Congress candidate for the Sundargarh LS Seat. He has to work hard to keep the Congress supporters together.
It’s unlikely that the Congress will win against the strong BJP and BJD in Sundargarh. But Dehuri has the responsibility to stop more people from leaving the Congress. Some Congress members think Dehuri might get less than two lakh votes in the election.
In the 2004 election, the Congress candidate Frida Topno got 2,96,886 votes, and Hemanand Biswal won in 2009 with 2,80,054 votes. But in the 2014 and 2019 elections, Biswal and George Tirkey got 2,69,335 and 2,68,218 votes respectively, placing third both times. In the last four elections, the Congress got around 2.68 lakh to 2.97 lakh votes, but those candidates were strong.
Dehuri won the Bonai Assembly seat in 1997 but was not well known outside that area until he became the SDCC president nine years ago. In 2014, he got only 6,025 votes when he ran as an Independent against the official Congress nominee. In 2019, when Congress gave the Bonai seat to CPM, Dehuri ran as an Independent again and got 11,722 votes. Some experts think it will be hard for Dehuri to win this time, especially with about 15.67 lakh registered voters and an expected turnout of 72 percent.
But Dehuri is confident that the Congress will do better with him leading.
A former SDCC president, BM Tripathy, mentioned that the Bhuiyan community is important in Sundargarh, and Dehuri represents them. The Congress has many loyal supporters in Sundargarh, and Dehuri has already campaigned all over the district, so he still has a chance.
However, another Congress leader said the party will get more votes from Rajgangpur and Talsara Assembly seats, where CS Razen Ekka and Prabodh Tirkey are the Congress candidates. Bonai and Birmitrapur seats are for allies, and the Congress is not strong in Rourkela, RN Pali, and Sundargarh, he added.
A leader from the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC), Biren Senapati, supports Dehuri, saying he is experienced and honest. So the competition will be tough with three parties involved.
