Across 400 km, Naveen Patnaik’s two seats have same concerns, hope: jobs

Over 400 km away, Patnaik is contesting from a second constituency, Kantabanji. Like Majhi, for voters here too, the lack of jobs is a big concern. Outward migration for work is a reality in both the constituencies.

Even if Patnaik wins from both and chooses to retain Hinjili – he did the same in 2019, when he had won additionally from Bijepur – for some, especially the youth who have known no other CM, the wait for things to change has dragged on for too long.

“BJD leaders take pride in the fact that Naveen babu will become the longest-serving CM by next August (if he comes back to power). He too claims to have done a lot for the state like constructing the world’s largest hockey stadium and hosting two (hockey) World Cups. But, in our region, he could not set up even a needle factory,” says Jagdish Gauda, who sells sugarcane juice near the Hinjili bus stand.

Gauda’s brother, who holds a technical degree, is working in Bengaluru after failing to get a job in the state.

In villages across the region, youths like him are away working in cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Surat. As voters point out, it is come elections that parties even remember these migrants, only to facilitate their travel back home so that they can vote.

Perhaps realising that his still-considerable popularity is coming under strains such as this, Patnaik recently announced ‘notified area council’ status for Sheragada block in the Hinjili constituency, with urban facilities like a city bus, streetlights, parks, good roads and a market complex to follow. Apart from Seregada, Hinjili comprises Hinjili town and Hinjili block.

For now, says Dileswar Nayak, 40, who belongs to Patapali village in Sheragada block, the social security benefits provided by the Patnaik government are the sole reason why he and the people he knows will vote for Patnaik. Nayak works as a driver, earning Rs 12,000 per month.

“Naveen babu has given us everything, from ration card and old age pension for my mother to healthcare assurance card,” says Nayak. “Our entire village supports Sankha (Conch, the BJD’s symbol). How can I think of any other party?”

Patnaik has won the Hinjili Assembly seat by over 60% votes since he began contesting from here. However, his share has been declining – from 76.04% in 2009 and 73.14% in 2014, to 66.32% in 2019. The BJP has made big strides, climbing from 10.06% in 2014 to 23.9% in 2019, at the cost of the Congress.

While the BJP had fielded senior advocate Pitambar Acharya from the seat in 2019, it has named Sisir Mishra this time. Mishra is focusing on unemployment in his campaign, telling The Indian Express: “Tour across the constituency and you will find at least 20%-30% houses locked in Hinjili as people have migrated… This area has a huge scope for food processing industries, but you will not find a single cold storage here.”

The defence of the BJD’s Ganjam district president, Ramesh Chandra Chyupatnaik, is that the migrants are skilled workers and not “dadans (bonded labourers)”. “There is no distress migration in Hinjili. Whoever is leaving is doing so because of their skills and for better earnings, which they are free to do,” says Chyupatnaik, adding: “We could have set up textile parks here, but the climate in Hinjili is not suitable for it.”

The second constituency Patnaik is fighting from, Kantabanji in western Odisha’s Balangir district, also has many locked houses, with members working outside the state. Unofficial data puts their number at over one lakh people from Turekala, Bangomunda and Muribahal blocks, who are working at brick kilns in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Stories of exploitation and bad working conditions are common.

On May 12, accompanying Patnaik during his tour of the constituency, his trusted lieutenant V K Pandian said the CM chose Kantabanji as his second seat to bring about “transformation”. While Pandian spoke about the state government’s schemes and promised free electricity, he was silent on the issue of migration.

In Kantabanji, Patnaik is up against sitting Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja, who has been repeated by the party, and the BJP’s Laxman Bag, who lost the last election from the seat by a mere 118 votes. The BJD’s Ajay Kumar Das had finished third in the Kantabanji Assembly seat in 2019, after the above two.

For a long time, Kantabanji had been a battleground between Saluja and the BJD’s Ayub Khan, with Saluja winning five times and Khan twice. In 2019, however, the BJD had replaced Khan with Das.

Saluja underlines that despite Pandian’s claim that the CM has Kantabanji’s interests in mind, Patnaik had conducted only two meetings in the seat and not visited a single village. “The CM should visit the villages to see the situation here. Nearly 50% of the houses in the region are locked because people have migrated… Drinking water and irrigation are a major problem. Farmers have had to resort to distress sale of paddy and cotton,” the sitting Congress MLA says.

He also says that the people are not fooled by the CM’s “lollipop” of contesting from Kantabanji, pointing to the fact that he vacated the Bijepur seat last time.

BJP candidate Bag also claims that Patnaik’s presence will not sway Kantabanji’s voting, and that the people will choose the national party to bring development to the region. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the BJP’s senior-most Odisha face, campaigned for Bag recently.

Like Bijepur, Kantabanji too is located in western Odisha, a region where the BJD has traditionally been weaker as compared to its rivals. The game plan behind fielding Patnaik from the area the last time was to stall the BJP, and it had paid off. While the BJP had won all the five Lok Sabha seats in western Odisha, the BJD had won a majority of the Assembly constituencies.

BJD leaders say they are confident that, unlike 2019, when the party finished third in Kantabanji, Patnaik would win the seat with a record margin. The BJD coordinator for the constituency, Bhupinder Singh, says voters of Kantabanji are “fortunate” that the CM has chosen the seat to contest from.

If not change, there is expectation in the air. “The CM’s victory from Kantabanji is almost certain. Irrespective of his decision to retain or vacate the seat, we are optimistic that Naveen babu will give special emphasis to the constituency,” says Vinod Agarwal, a local trader.