Odisha panchayat polls: Tales of grit and indefatigable spirit

In Ganjam district, which witnesses a lot of outward migration to states such as Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, a village in Purushottampur block elected a daily wage labourer, Dinabandhu Das (52), in the recent polls. Das campaigned with an MGNREGA job card in hand and promised to ensure more jobs for the youth in the village. Notably, Das himself had worked in the textile industry in Gujarat for nearly 20 years before coming back to Odisha. Later, his sons followed in his footsteps and migrated out of the state for work. The family faced its worst crisis during the pandemic-induced lockdown, when Das’s sons had to return home after losing their jobs.

“The pandemic taught me how important it was to have jobs in the locality. As the sarpanch, apart from executing development work in the panchayat, I will try to ensure more work for the youth here under the MGNREGA scheme,” he said. The Gangadhani panchayat where Das won was reserved for candidates from the Scheduled Caste category this year.

In Mayurbhanj district, Rani Singh of Bhadasole village under Bhangriposi block won the sarpanch’s seat by a margin of 115 votes. Singh is a homemaker and married to a truck driver. She told indianexpress.com that she decided to contest the polls after being denied a pucca house. Singh defeated a seasoned candidate and former sarpanch Sabita Bhuyan. “Every person elected to power engages in favouritism. I was denied a pucca house twice. My name never made it to the list of beneficiaries. So, I was determined to win the election and give everybody equal opportunities,” Singh said.

In Pratapur gram panchayat, final-year MA student Hira Nayak (21) got elected. In 2019, her house was extensively damaged by Cyclone Fani and most of her belongings got washed away. She continues to live in a kutcha house, which is covered by a tarpaulin sheet to protect against rain. Nayak’s mother is a homemaker and father a daily wage labourer.

“There are no roads in my village. Most of the houses are kutcha and they get damaged during the rains. Even for basic treatment, we have to travel at least 20 km. Being near the coast, heavy rains and winds are a common affair here. I knew that to develop my village, I had to first win the election and take our grievances to the higher authorities,” Nayak said.

Till last reports came in, the BJD had won 759 of 845 zilla parishad seats. The BJP was a distant second with 42 seats and the Congress had secured 37 seats.