Summary:
As the majority of the settlers from Malkangiri are farmers, they have been provided with irrigation facilities,” said Ramesh.He said community halls had been constructed for the Bengali settlers, Bengali books have been made available in schools in Malkangiri and Bengali teachers appointed as the children faced problems in reading and writing Odia. “The support of the Bengali voters is important for any tribal candidate aspiring to win the election. Undoubtedly, the Bengali diktat will prevail in Nabarangpur constituency,” said a political analyst.Though Malkangiri, where most of the Bengali settlers live, has always been anti-Congress, the party made inroads into the Bengali villages and its candidate Pradeep Majhi won the seat in 2009. Balabhadra will now contest as a BJP candidate while BJD has fielded Ramesh Chandra Majhi.“The state government has taken many steps for the development of Bengali settlers in the past five years. However, in the 2014 election, Congress lost it to BJD’s Balabhadra Majhi by a narrow margin of just over 2,000 votes..