Koraput/Bhubaneswar: Rahul Gandhi’s promise of Rs 72,000 annual assistance for the poor is a good move, but so is the way Prime Minister Narendra Modi avenged the terror strike in Pulwama by the airstrike in Balakot, says Nitai Dey, a resident of MV 18 village in Kalimela block of Malkangiri district, which is part of the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha segment.Dey is among the Bengalis whose families migrated and settled in Malkangiri district in the 1970s and who hold a key to who wins this seat, which saw one of the lowest victory margins in the 2014 polls. In that election, BJD’s Balabhadra Majhi had defeated Pradeep Majhi of Congress by a mere 2,042 votes.Rahul and Modi apart, Naveen Patnaik’s performance in the past 19 years and his decisions this term of providing cash assistance for farmers through the Kalia scheme, subsidized meals across Aahar canteens and health cover in the form of the Biju Swasthya Yojana have also dominated conversations in the constituency.Things have changed in the past five years and the seat is set to witness a three-cornered fight among BJD, BJP and Congress. Balabhadra, who won the seat as BJD nominee, is a BJP contestant this time. The Naveen-led regional party has fielded minister Ramesh Majhi while Congress has retained its 2014 contestant, Pradeep.Balabhadra, who entered politics by quitting his job as a chief engineer with the railways in 2014, said he was personally involved in ensuring the commissioning of several development projects in the constituency, especially the rail line from Jeypore to Malkangiri and Jeypore to Nabarangpur.“I have worked tirelessly for the development of my constituency but was denied a ticket by BJD. Hence, I joined BJP, which was the wish of my supporters. I will surely win this election and BJD will finish third,” he said.Pradeep, 43, had first made news when he highlighted the deaths by malnutrition of 11 children in Dongiriguda under Jharigam block in 2002. He went to win the Nabarangpur seat in 2009. Hoping to bridge the already-thin victory margin of 2014, Pradeep has remained active in Nabarangpur. He expressed confidence that he would win back the seat he lost five years ago.“The state government talks a lot about tribal education but it is unfortunate that more than 2,000 tribal students of Malkangiri have been unable to join high school as the government is deliberately not providing them with caste certificates,” alleged Pradeep, hoping, “Last time, I was defeated narrowly but I am confident of winning this election.”The BJD’s Ramesh, meanwhile, said the party would retain the seat. “The whole of Malkangiri district, which falls under the seat, has seen a sea-change in the past five years. The decades-old demand of the people of the cut-off area for a bridge over the Gurupriya was fulfilled last year. The state government has also provided land free of cost to connect Malkangiri with the country’s rail network.”He added that in the past five years, over 1,500 km of new roads and 21 bridges had been constructed and an additional 45 doctors posted in the district. “Besides, a seven-storey, 300-bed hospital has been commissioned in Malkangiri, while three new sub-stations have been constructed providing electricity to around 600 villages. These are all indicators of development,” he said.“As cabinet minister, I have toured Malkangiri district several times and share a good rapport with the people of the district. I am confident I will win the election with a huge margin,” Ramesh added.Amid the claims and counter-claims by the contestants, various factors will determine how the elections are fought. Ever since Nabarangpur became reserved for STs in 1967, it has elected leaders from the Bhotras, an ST community spread across the district. Last election was the first time a Gond (Balabhadra) was elected from the seat.While Pradeep belongs to the Bhotra community, which constitutes around 60 per cent of the total population in Nabarangpur, Balabhadra and Ramesh belong to the Gond community, which comprises 20 per cent of the population in the segment.“Bengali settlers are another key to the poll outcome of Nabarangpur. They have a sizeable population here,” said Jayant Mohapatra, a retired professor of political science from Berhampur University.The Bengalis, who migrated from Bangladesh in the 1970s, live in as many as 213 villages in Malkangiri district and 64 villages in Nabarangpur districts after acquiring citizenship in the early Seventies. Almost all of them belong to the scheduled castes.Nabarangpur is traditionally a Congress bastion; Khagapati Pradhani of the party won the seat 10 times in a row since 1967. It regained its stronghold in 2009 while BJD tasted its maiden victory in Nabarangpur in 2014.

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