Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handpicked poster boy for Puri, Sambit Patra, has suffered defeat in his maiden electoral debut.
Sambit Patra was defeated by Pinaki Mishra, the sitting parliamentarian from Puri with a comfortable margin of more than eleven thousand votes.
Sambit, an unknown name for the majority of the people in Puri was tasked with facing the stalwart MP Pinaki Mishra by the Bharatiya Janata party. It was just like an outsider being forced on the people of Puri.
According to many political analysts, Sambit was entrusted with the fight only to bring publicity for the party and to remain in limelight.
From day one of his campaigning he was in news for all wrong reasons. Many people in Puri now see Sambit as a tourist who came to Puri for enjoying his political tourism. When the people needed his help, he was not there with them.
In comparison to this, Pinaki is a stalwart who has been a three time MP from Puri. It will be his fourth term in the Lok Sabha. The people of Puri have reposed their faith in him again with the charismatic leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The successful mitigation of cyclone Fani shows that the Biju Janata Dal is always for the people.