Family ties influence Odisha politics
SAMBALPUR: Till a couple of months ago, Navjyoti Patnaik was best known as a low-key, Delhi-based businessman. Now, the son of the Odisha state Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik is slogging long hours in Balasore as the party’s candidate for the Lok Sabha election.
Senior Biju Janata Dal leader Arjun Charan Sethi, a five-term MP, quit the party as his son was refused a ticket from Bhadrak Lok Sabha seat. Sethi and his son, Abhimanyu, quickly joined the BJP and four days after their entry, the saffron outfit announced the latter’s name as their candidate from that coveted seat.
Cutting across the political spectrum, family lines are a dominant factor of Odisha’s electoral politics. Experts point out many of these families has huge lands and fat purses and therefore, come with a formidable candidature to win votes.
While chief minister Naveen Patnaik is a bachelor with no family members in politics, he too depends on quite a few influential political families to win seats. In Balangir, sitting MP and party’s candidate Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo is the son of Ananga Udaya Singh Deo, BJD’S Rajya Sabha MP. Kalikesh’s younger brother, Arkesh Narayan had debuted in elections this year and he is the BJD candidate from the Balangir Assembly seat.
But Kalikesh will not face any rookie in this key seat of western Odisha. His chief opponent is also his sister-in-law Sangeeta Singh Deo. While Sangeeta, a three-time BJP MP, will try to wrest the seat from Kalikesh, her husband KV Singh Deo is trying to retain his Patnagarh Assembly constituency.
In the neighbouring Bargarh, posters of BJD heavyweight Prasanna Acharya are splashed in all important villages and towns. Many of the posters and banners also show a young face-- his nephew Debesh Acharya. The junior Acharya is fighting in the assembly constituency of Bargarh. The Assembly and Lok Sabha polls will be held simultaneously in the coastal state.
The issue of dynasty in politics has once again whipped up in the ongoing political discourse as the BJP tries to corner the Congress over is dependence on the Nehru-gandhi family. Prime Minister Narendra Modi even coined the term ‘naamdar’, as against his selfimposed ‘kaamdaar’ status, to hit out at the top leaders of the Congress over their family lineage. But in Odisha, the dynasty issue seems irrelevant in the poll campaign as all three big players—the BJP, BJD and the Congress—have resorted to influential families to win votes.
Senior Congress leader Narsingh Misra’s son Samarendra has got Congress ticket to fight Lok Sabha poll. and in Sundargarh, former Odisha CM and Congress stalwart Hemananda Biswal’s elder daughter Sunita is BJD candidate while younger daughter Anita will be fighting as a Congress candidate for Sundergarh assembly seat.
BJD’S Lok Sabha floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab, however, defended the selection of candidates with family ties. “The ultimate test of a candidate lies with the voters. If he is acceptable to voters, he or she can represent them at the legislative bodies. But mere kinship is no guarantee of victory. One has to work hard to earn people’s trust.”
Dilip Panda, former professor of Gangadhar Meher University in Sambalpur, however, said that family ties also ensure access to resources for election. “The reasons for fielding candidates with strong family background are clear. Most of these political families are very wealthy. They also own huge tracts of land and the livelihood of thousands of farmers and their families—who are also local voters—virtually depend on them. So, it’s easy for them to influence some voters and spend more money than the peers.”