Samikhsya Bureau
In Odisha politics, Bijoy Mohapatra has not lost his political relevance though he has not won an election in the past 19 years. Likewise, in Sambalpur politics, Suresh Pujari has not lost his stature though he has lost in assembly and Parliament elections since 2000.
Pujari, a former Odisha BJP president, came to limelight in the state as a firebrand student leader in early 1980s following a student movement. In 1985, former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik wanted him to contest as a Janata Dal candidate for Sambalpur assembly constituency but Pujari’s socialist moorings dictated that he contested as an Independent candidate against veteran Shradhakara Supakar, who won as the Congress candidate. However, later people of Sambalpur elected him as the chairman of Sambalpur municipality in the first and last direct election of municipality chairmen in Odisha.
After Pujari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, he was made to contest the Brajarajnagar assembly constituency, which was almost an alien terrain for him, in 2000. Old timers in the party say that former Union minister Debendra Pradhan, father of Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, wanted to use Pujari’s cadres mobilise votes for him in 1999 parliamentary elections in Deogarh. Then Brajarajnagar assembly segment was part of Deogarh Lok Sabha constituency, which has now been abolished after delimitation.
Pujari lost to Anup Sai of Congress by a comfortable margin, but in the subsequent two elections – 2004 and 2009 – he created a formidable base for the BJP in the constituency, which used to be a solid fort of veteran communist leader Prasanna Panda.
Call it the luck of Sai or bad luck of Pujari, the latter lost to the former in 2004 and 2009 by thin margins – less than 2000 votes. But the base created by Pujari in Brajarajnagar contributed to Dharmendra Pradhan’s win from Deogarh Lok Sabha seat in 2004.
But in 2014, the BJP shifted him to Sambalpur, but not as a candidate for assembly segment but Lok Sabha. He was among the few BJP Lok Sabha candidates who gave a fierce fight to the winning BJD candidates. Pujari lost by a margin of around 30,000, which is not much as far as Lok Sabha is concerned. He also took a lead of over 30,000 votes over his BJD opponent in Sambalpur assembly segment.
Anyone analysing data in BJP would have concluded that Pujari would be the fittest candidate for Sambalpur Lok Sabha or Sambalpur assembly seats. But now he has been again shifted, to Bargarh Lok Sabha seat in 2019 elections.
Now, Pujari has to face the combined force of chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who is contesting from Bijepur assembly segment, Prasanna Acharya, who will be his BJD opponent for Lok Sabha contest, and Naba Kishore Das, who is BJD’s man for Jharsuguda. Anyone with some common sense can conclude that it is an uphill task for Pujari to win in Bargarh.
Besides, in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Subash Chauhan was BJP’s candidate in Bargarh parliamentary constituency. It may be noted that among all 21 BJP Lok Sabha candidates, Chauhan got the maximum number of votes and lost by least number of votes.
Still, surprisingly Chauhan was replaced by Pujari. BJP sources blame Dharmendra Pradhan, who does not share a cordial relationship with Chauhan, for it. Many of those sympathise with Pujari allege that Pradhans have milked Pujari for their own benefit but never allowed him to grow politically.
BJP workers in Sambalpur and Bargarh say that both Pujari and Chauhan have invested much time building their own organisations in Sambalpur and Bargarh Lok Sabha constituencies respectively. Those powerful people controlling the BJP have killed two winnable candidates in one stroke by shifting Pujari to Bargarh and denying Chauhan to contest again from there. But in the process, do the powerful people not killing themselves?
