Berhampur: The country has witnessed 17 Lok Sabha elections after independence from 1951-1952 to 2019. Odisha’s Ganjam district has two Lok Sabha constituencies. However, only three women have been elected to the Lok Sabha from these two constituencies in the last 68 years. Also only one woman from the district has been elected to the Rajya Sabha in the same time frame. It definitely proves that women politicians get a raw deal as far as Ganjam district is concerned.
The representation of women to the Lok Sabha from a large and politically conscious Ganjam district has been quite dismal and disappointing, to say the least.
This development has come at a time when a Bill seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state Legislative Assemblies has been passed in both Houses of Parliament and will be implemented in the 2029 elections. Now women politicians in Ganjam district are hoping that they will get greater prominence in the 2029 polls.
The Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency was first known as Ganjam and later changed to Chhatrapur before finally getting its present-day name. In the past, the constituency comprised of Chhatrapur, Gopalpur, Berhampur and Chikiti Assembly segments in Ganjam district and Paralakhemundi, Ramgiri and Mohana Assembly segments of neighbouring Gajapati district.
Ramgiri was separated from the Berhampur constituency due to delimitation in 2009. Also a new Assembly segment, Digapahandi was formed and included in the Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency.
The late Jayanti Patnaik contested as a Congress candidate from the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat and won defeating BJP’s Gopinath Gajapati in the midterm elections held in 1998. She thus became the first woman to become a Lok Sabha member from Ganjam district.
The second Lok Sabha constituency in the district is Aska. This constituency comprises Khallikote, Kabisuryanagar, Sorada, Aska, Hinjili, east Kodala, Polsara and Sanakhemundi Assembly segments. BJD supremo and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik contested from this Lok Sabha seat in the 1998 elections and won by a huge margin defeating Chandra Sekhar Sahu of the Congress.
Patnaik again contested in the general elections in 1999 from Aska and emerged victorious a second time. In the 2000 state elections, Patnaik won from Hinjili Assembly segment and became the Chief Minister and subsequently resigned as a Lok Sabha MP.
BJD’s Kumudini Patnaik, wife of late political leader Ramakrushna Patnaik contested from the vacant Aska seat and was elected to the Lok Sabha. She thus became the second woman from Ganjam district to go to the Lok Sabha.
In the 2019 elections, Patnaik nominated Pramila Bisoi as the BJD candidate from Aska. Bisoi won from this seat and became the third woman Lok Sabha member from Ganjam district.
PNN
