In fact, Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik has been getting a good response from crowds wherever he happen to address election meetings these days. People seem quite happy with him for his clean image.

However, growth of BJP in the aftermath of the split in the alliance appears to have created roadblocks for Mr. Patnaik's party.

Had the BJD and the BJP stayed together, there would have been straight contests between the alliance nominees and the Congress candidates. But now, a majority of seats are witnessing triangular contests with candidates of BJD, Congress and BJP as main contenders.

Even BJD workers are of the view that an unexpected growth of the BJP after the split has created a difficult situation for them.

This condition prevails in several Assembly seats under the Lok Sabha seats of Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri.

The Lok Sabha seats of Bhadrak, Puri and Kendrapara are witnessing a similar situation.

In sharp contrast, the Congress workers seem to be the happiest lot. Although the party had been suffering from groupism till recently, they have now joined hands to draw benefit from the split in the BJD-BJP alliance.

As regards BJP, the party leaders are also working hard to win the polls as they had not any strong base in the region in the past. They may not win many seats, but an impressive increase in their vote share may spoil the chances of BJD nominees in several constituencies.#