Bhubaneswar, April 20 -- As the mine-rich Keonjhar will vote coming Tuesday, mining a win from the Lok Sabha (LS) seat for the BJP and Congress looks an uphill task.
While BJP has placed its faith on old warhorse Ananta Naik, Congress and BJD have brought in new faces. While BJD has pitted Chandrani Murmu, daughter of former Keonjhar MP and Congress leader Harihar Soren, from the LS seat, Fakir Mohan Patnaik will be the Congress candidate.
Keonjhar was once a Congress bastion. The party had won the LS seat as many as six times since 1952. BJP had won the seat thrice between 1998 and 2004, when the party had an alliance with BJD. Post break-up, BJD had wrested the seat from BJP. And the party has increased its lead in all the assembly seat...