Economic concerns dominate poll discourse in Nabarangpur

Bhubaneswar: Lack of industry, irrigation facilities and unemployment are the major issues in the tribal-dominated Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency in southern Odisha which will go to the polls on May 13.

The Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency comprises some parts of Nabarangpur district and also some areas of Koraput and Malkangiri district.

The BJD has fielded Pradeep Majhi, a former MP, the BJP nominee is Balabhadra Majhi, also a former MP, while the Congress has nominated Bhujabal Majhi, a veteran tribal leader and three-time MLA from Dabugam, for Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency.

There is no industry in Nabarangpur district.

The government has also failed to provide irrigation facilities to farmers while unemployment is at an alarming stage in the area, the Congress candidate alleged.

‘’I was an MLA for three terms and the people are praising the works done in Dabugam during my tenure. People have voted for other candidates and have seen that no work was done during their tenure. I hope that this time people of Nabarangpur will vote for me because I am a new face for Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency,’’ he said.

Nabarangpur Lok Sabha (ST) constituency was traditionally a Congress bastion. Of the 17 general elections held since Independence, Congress has won the seat 12 times. In the first Lok Sabha election in 1951, Ponada Subarao of Gantantra Parishad won the seat by defeating Jagdish Chandra Naik of Congress. Khagapati Pradhani of the Congress party won the seat 10 times in a row from 1967 to 1998.

The Congress retained the seat in 2009. However, the Congress narrowly lost the Lok Sabha seat in the last two elections.

The BJD candidate, Pradeep Majhi, said, ‘’Due to the efforts of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Malkangiri district has become a leading district in Odisha. We will seek votes presenting our developmental programmes in the constituency during the BJD regime.’’ Pradeep Majhi had won from Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket.

The BJP candidate, Balabhadra Majhi, alleged that the Nabarangpur constituency was totally neglected by the BJD government. “People have a strong feeling that until BJD is removed from the helm, no development activity can take place in the area.

The people want a change this time,’’ Balabhadra claimed. He had won from Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 on a BJD ticket.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Ramesh Chandra Majhi of BJD had won the seat defeating his BJP rival Pradeep Kumar Majhi. Tribal voters and about two lakh Bengalis, who migrated from Bangladesh in the 1970s, will play a key role in the elections.

The Bengali settlers, who had migrated from Bangladesh, live in 213 villages in Malkangiri district and 64 villages in Nabarangpur district after acquiring citizenship in the early 1970s.

Almost all of them belong to the Scheduled Caste category.

Umerkote, Jharigam, Nabarangpur and Dabugam Assembly segments in Nabarangpur district, Kotpad constituency in Koraput district and Malkangiri and Chitrakonda Assembly segment of Malkangiri district come under Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency.