The faction-ridden Congress fielded Mr Pranay Sahu for the Bijepur assembly by-poll and he filed his nomination papers on Wednesday. Groupism within the Congress and a indecisive AICC had delayed selection of candidate for the by-poll leading to speculations that both the ruling BJD and BJP had “managed’ a few Congress leaders to aggravate the tussle over aspirants.

There were speculation that some Congress leaders were entrusted with the task of lobbying for Ripunath Seth as the candidate ahead of Pranay Sahu by certain leaders of the other two political parties as he would be a weak candidate.

The factionalsim was evident even during the nomination related event including a public meeting. Several top leaders like Niranjan Patnaik, Narasingha Mishra were conspicuous by their absence. Patnaik was said to be pre-occupied with a social function in the family.

Narasingha Mishra who has some influence in Bijepur and was a mentor of late Subal Sahu who had won the seat thrice , was missing on Wednesday. His son and supporters were however present. Reliable sources said Mishra had been informed about on Wednesday’s nomination late and he could not make it from Bhubaneswar.

But even more significant was the absence of five of the six member committee formed to select the candidate. It is learnt that Sarat Patnaik, Naba Das, Jagannath Patnaik, Bhakta Charan Das were not there on Wednesday. The lone member present was former chief minister Hemananda Biswal. Despite all the failings and least effort, people in large number turned up at the public meeting.

Pranay Sahu noted that this was the kind of love and affection people of the constituency had for him and for the Congress party. Both the BJD and BJP have fielded candidates who did not belong to their respective parties till a month ago, he remarked. The BJD has put up Ms Rita Sahu, widow of Subal Sahu while BJP had nominated Ashok Panigrahi who had switched over from the BJD.

OPCC chief Prasad Harichandan said Congress will retain the seat as people have already seen through the ‘jumla sarkar’ of the BJP and 17 year misrule of the BJD. AICC secretary Subankar Sarkar, former MP Pradeep Majhi, Sanjay Bhoim Prakash Devta, Aswini Guru and several other addressed the public meeting before leading a procession to file the nomination papers.