2009 -- India Election -

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Advantage BJP in Puri</b>
pioneer.com
Navin Upadhyay | Puri
BJD-expelled Tripathi of BJP has upper hand over Naveen’s Cong-deserter Mishra
In the temple town of Puri, the election discourse is often punctuated by talk of crime and punishment, with Lord Jagannath being invoked to judge over battle of dharma and adharma.

<b>Three-time MP Braja Kishore Tripathy, who was shown the door by the BJD despite being one of its founder members,</b> is seeking justice from voters as a BJP nominee, determined to punish Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for his ‘crime’ of betrayal. He is pitted against <b>BJD’s Pinaki Mishra, a Congress-deserter</b>, who is unlikely to be accepted by his new party workers and forgiven by the old supporters.

Tripathy’s image of being the man next door, accessible in need and vocal in raising Orissa-related issues in the Lok Sabha, are big assets in this battle of personalities. Congress nominee Debendra Mansingh is a pushover and is not being taken seriously.

But Pinaki Mishra is no less known in the Orissa political circles than Tripathy. A senior Supreme Court lawyer, who lost the last two Lok Sabha polls on the Congress ticket, Mishra is one of the leading personalities of the State. But that is where the comparison stops.

Unlike Tripathy, who is seen as a man of the masses, Mishra is seen as a man of Delhi. “We will never forget how he ditched the people when he was elected as MP from here,” recall Devendra Kumar Naik, a farmer at Baikuntha Vihar, on Bhubaneswar-Puri highway.

“<b>Mark my word, Trapathy is going to win,” </b>says Ravi Naik, a local contract teacher. “Tripathy made it a point to visit us on marriage and festive occasions. But Pinaki Mishra is more heard than seen,” he added.
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