With the Assembly elections approaching fast, aspirants have begun lobbying hard for party tickets here, though their number is the highest in the ruling BJD. The polls will take place on April 17.

Jagatsinghpur district has four Assembly seats such as Paradip, Balikuda-Erasama, Jagatsinghpur and Tirtol. While the first three are unreserved, the last one is reserved for SC candidate.

The ensuing elections will witness a direct contest between BJD and Congress, while BJP which had got only 3 per cent of votes in last Assembly polls in 2009 is likely to improve its tally, said political observers.

For the BJD, it will be a tough task to choose a candidate from a long list of aspirants for the four seats. While the picture is still not clear who would be given ticket for Balikuda- Erasama and reserved Tirtol seats, two veterans, Minister Damodar Rout and senior MlA cum district BJD president Bishnu Das, are likely to retain their tickets for Paradip and Jagatsinghpur seats respectably as both still maintain their supremacy in both the constituencies, felt political observers.

For Balikuda- Erasama seat nearly eight candidates from BJD have applied for party ticket, including present MlA Prasanta Muduli. Some party insiders revealed that Dama Babu is also interested to contest from the seat. Others seeking BJD tickets are Raghunandan Das, Sanjya Mohanty, Dama Babu’s brother Dr Bamadev Rout, his son Sambit Rout, Umesh Swain and Pramod Kumar Swain. Notably, Umesh Swain has recently resigned from Congress and joined BJD.

Sources said if Dama Babu retains Paradip seat, his kin, either brother Dr Bamadev or son Sambit, are likely to get party ticket for Balikuda- Erasama seat. Hence chances are less for present MlA Muduli.

Muduli has bitter relationship with Dama Babu, while the dominance of Dama Babu and Bishnu Das has triggered much internal squabble inside the district BJD unit here.

Umesh Swain had contested from the Balikuda- Erasama seat in 2009 from Congress. After his resignation from the party, the Congress is in search of a good and winnable candidate. The aspirants this time in the party are former MlAs lalatendu Mohapatra, Bijaya Nayak, Zilla Parishad member Sarada Jena, Siba Brata Das and Dr Susant Kunongo.

There are three aspirants in BJP including Priya Ranjan Das, Tapan Behera and Amita Das.

BJD MlA Ravindra Nath Bhoi has undertaken a hectic tour of Tirtol constituency with his supporters in last couple of weeks with a motive to be renominated from the seat while political observers feel the party may drop him this time as he has fallen from the BJD supremo’s grace after getting entangled in false affidavit row.

Bhoi too maintains a bitter relation with his mentor cum political guru Bishnu Das. The other aspirants this time from the party for Tirtol are Dr Rajashree Mallick,  Zilla Parishad member Prasanna Mallick, Sagar Mohapatra, Yudhistera Sethy.

Rajashree had got BJD ticket for Tirtol seat in 2009 but she could not file nomination as her name was not in voter list. Party insiders revealed that if Bishnu Das is pushed to contest in Jagatsinghpur lok Sabha seat, any of his kin will get the MlA ticket for Tirtol.

Meanwhile, there are a number of aspirants from Congress party seeking ticket from Tirtol like Raj Kishor Behera, Deva Prasad Mallick and Pratima Mallick, two former legislators Krushna Chandra Mallick and Kailash Chandra Mallick. lata Das and Ranjeet Mallick have applied for the BJP ticket

for Tirtol.

There are many aspirants from Congress and BJD for Paradip. Dama Babu wants to retain his seat. But if he is pushed to Balikuda- Erasama constituency, his son Sambit will get party ticket from Paradip. Other aspirants include Magu Charan Nayak, former Zilla Parishad president Sabita Mohapatra and Paradip municipality vice chairman Basanta Biswal.

From Congress side, Er Pramod Kumar Jena, Rajat Choudhury and controversial trade unionist Bapi Sarkhel have applied for party ticket. There are three aspirants claiming for BJP ticket for Paradip such as advocate Gati Krushna Satapathy, Ajit Das and Bibhu Prasad Nayak.

After delimitation, Jagatsinghpur Assembly seat has come under unreserved category in 2009 and Bishnu Das had retained the seat and got elected after defeating his Congress rival Chiranjeeb Biswal.

This time five- time legislator Bishnu Das is still hopeful to get the party ticket as there is a dearth of potential candidates to fight Congress candidate Biswal.

If Das switches over to Jagatsinghpur lok Sabha seat, any one from Amarendra Das, former block chairperson Kanak lenka, Zilla Parishad president Devi Data Mohanty, Pradipta Swain,Deepak Das and Imam Uddin may be given ticket.