Fact File

The far-flung tribal seats of Nawarangpur ST and Koraput ST in southern Orissa will elect new members to the Lok Sabha after three decades. Neither Khagapati Pradhani, who has won the Nawarangpur seat for a record nine times in a row since 1967 nor Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang, who made the Koraput seat his own in 1972, are in the fray this time.

After spending 32 years in Parliament, Pradhani has brushed aside requests from party leaders to contest for the 10th time. The party has finally chosen Chandrasekhar Majhi, president of the Koraput zilla parishad. In Koraput it has decided to field Hema Gamang, the Chief Minister8217;s wife.

Both constituencies, bordering AP and MP, are bastions of the Congress but BJP candidate Parsuram Majhi is making a determined bid to wrest Nawarangpur from the Congress.