BHUBANESWAR: The BJP fielded Sanat Gartia from Bijepur assembly seat, where chief minister Naveen Patnaik has entered the fray, after senior leader Subash Chauhan declined party offer to contest from there.Gartia, who had deserted BJP in 2008, had returned to the party last year ahead of by-election in Bijepur necessitated by then MLA Subal Sahu’s death. Sanat is nephew of Nityanand Gartia who was Bijepur MLA from 1977-1980 (Janata Dal).Earlier, Chauhan expressed anguish over denial of party ticket to him from Bargarh LS seat where he unsuccessfully contested in 2014 but was defeated by a narrow margin of only 11,178 votes from BJD’s Pravas Singh. Chauhan had polled the highest (3.72 lakh) votes by any BJP candidate in Odisha in 2014. Bijepur is part of Bargarh parliament constituency.His supporters had resorted to protest after BJP fielded party’s national secretary Suresh Pujari, who had lost the last LS election from Sambalpur , from Bargarh this time. Apparently to pacify Chauhan’s anger, the BJP last week appointed him vice-president of the state unit and asked him to contest from Bijepur assembly seat.Venting his ire on a Facebook post on Monday, Chauhan wrote “Since chief minister Naveen Patnaik has been fighting from Bijepur, I suggested the party that powerful leader Dharmendra Pradhan (Union minister) should contest from the seat. The same was however turned down.”“Whatever (denial of party ticket to him from Bargarh) was done is an insult to the OBC community of western Odisha. My supporters who protested the decision were threatened by some senior leaders of the party,” Chauhan wrote.Chauhan is a former state president of Hindu Jagaran Manch and former national convener of Bajrang Dal (2010 to 2012).The Congress has fielded its former minister Ripunath Seth from Bijepur from where he was elected MLA in 1995.

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