Congress drops ex-Indian hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey as candidate in Odisha
The Congress named freelance journalist Debendra Bhitria as Prabodh Tirkey’s replacement as it changed three candidates on Sunday
The Congress has dropped former Indian hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey, 39, who led the country to victory in the 2007 Asia Cup championship, as its candidate from Odisha’s Talasara assembly constituency.
Tirkey was named as the Congress’s candidate from the reserved seat for tribals on April 2. He joined the party in September after quitting his job with Air India.
“I am shattered. This is not the way to treat sportsmen who have represented the country. Since my name was announced, I have been campaigning hard and meeting people. If the party did not want to give me a ticket, why did they announce my name?” asked Tirkey, whose village Nuapada is known as a nursery of hockey.
The Congress named freelance journalist Debendra Bhitria as Tirkey’s replacement as it changed three candidates on Sunday.
A Congress leader in Talasara said Tirkey did not have any electoral experience, but the party rank and file was energised as the former hockey star was a known figure and people felt proud of him. “The region is known to be crazy for hockey. It was a good decision to give a ticket to Prabodh, who due to his affable nature had become popular during campaigning,” said the leader.
State Congress chief Sarat Pattanayak did not respond to queries on change of the candidature.
Talsara has been a Congress stronghold and the party won the seat nine out of 12 times between 1974 and 2019. Congress lawmaker Prafulla Majhi, the party’s face in the state’s tribal region, switched to ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) two years ago
The BJD has named former Indian hockey captain Dilip Tirkey as its candidate from Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jual Oram. Dilip Tirkey lost to Oram in the 2014 Lok Sabha election by over 18000 votes.
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