Voters from the Bengali settler community would be a key deciding factor in the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency.
Earlier, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) boasted of support of this Bengali settler community. But during the past few years the Congress has built up a good support base among this community living in parts of Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts. They are Bengali refugees who had been rehabilitated in these areas during the Bangladesh war and after it.
Although there is no clear data regarding the number of voters of this community in the constituency yet as per political leaders of the area they are around 10 to 12 per cent of total voters. “So, this large a number of voters cannot be ignored,” said Pradeep Majhi, Congress MP of the constituency, who would contest again from the same seat. It may be noted that in the last Lok Sabha polls Mr Majhi won by a margin of 29,976 votes.
These Bengali voters live in around 64 villages of Nabarangpur district and around 230 villages of Malkangiri district, which are part of the constituency. Although in other parts of the country, the BJP adopts an anti-Bangladeshi settler stance, in this area the party had managed to get their support. These Bengali voters had also been a major factor behind the victory of BJP candidate Parsuram Majhi from this constituency in 1999 and 2004.
But in a planned way the Congress had made efforts to garner support of this Bengali settler community. Congress leaders, especially the Nabarangpur MP, had got attached with activities of Nikhil Bharatiya Bengali Udvastu Samity, an organisation of Bangladeshi settlers in India. The Congress had helped the organisation to hold a rally in Malkangiri district a few months ago. Mr Majhi also took part in demonstration of the organisation in New Delhi.
“Most Bengali settlers of my constituency are farmers and during my tenure as MP, I have tried to help them through assistance for land rights as well as irrigation facility,” said Mr Majhi. Congress leaders allege that the BJP leaders kept contact with these Bengali voters only for electoral gain and did not try to sort out their problems. Recently Congress also protested against alleged police atrocities on commoners in Malkangiri district including tribals and Bengali settlers.
It would be a triangular fight for the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat. The BJP has also declared former MP Parsuram Majhi as its candidate for it, while the BJD is yet to declare its candidate. Nabarangpur was a bastion of the Congress and Khagapati Pradhani had won from here 10 times in a row since the first Lok Sabha polls in 1951. The series win of the Congress had been broken by the BJP in 2000 and 2004, when it was an ally of the BJD. In 2009, Congress had regained the seat and wants to continue its hold on it.
