Berhampur: The Chikiti Assembly segment is one of the most talked about Assembly constituencies in Ganjam district with the elections being fought between two high profile families for the last 45 years. In the nine Assembly elections from 1980 to 2019, the fight for the seat has been amongst the families of Congress leader and former Odisha Assembly Speaker Chintamani Dyan Samantara and Chikiti royal and former minister Usha Devi. Other leaders have alleged that these two families are a hindrance to the development of politicians in the district.
Observers however, said that the fight between the Rani (Queen) and Mani (Chintamani) is only making the electoral battle in the constituency very interesting. Initially from 1951 to 1961 the Chikiti and Patrapur areas were part of the Berhampur Assembly segment. The new Chikiti Assembly segment was formed in 1967. In the first election, veteran freedom fighter late Dibakar Patnaik was elected to the state Assembly on a Congress ticket from the constituency. The battle between the two families started in the 1980 Assembly elections. Congress fielded former royal Sachhidananda Narayan Deo instead of veteran leader Samantara.
However, Samantara contested as an independent and won. The then Janata Party fielded Devi of in the 1985 elections. However, by this time Samantara was back in the Congress fold and he defeated Devi. However, fortunes were reversed in the 1990 elections when Devi defeated Samantara. However, in the 1995 elections, it was Samantra who had the last laugh. Since then, however, from 2000, it has been Devi all the way. She has been elected to the Odisha Assembly five times on the trot and has been a minister on several occasions.
Despite his best efforts, Samantara has not been able to win. In the 2014 elections, Samantara withdrew from active politics due to age. His place was taken by Manoranjan, his second son. However, Manoranjan failed to stop the Devi juggernaut. In 2019, Manoranjan contested on a BJP ticket, but even then he lost by a margin of over 20,000 votes against Devi. Since then, however, changes have been noticed in the constituency.
In the last panchayat elections conducted in 2022, the BJP managed to wrest the Patrapur block from the BJD. Political observers feel that the upcoming election is the best chance for the BJP to defeat Devi. When contacted, district BJD president Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik said that BJD has prepared a poll strategy to retain the Chikiti constituency.
Speculation is rife that this time around, the BJD may nominate Devi’s son Chinmayananda Srirup Deo to contest from Chikiti. The fact, however, is that BJP is leaving nothing to chance even though its vote bank has substantially increased in the constituency. Hence all eyes will be on who finally emerges triumphant in Chikiti.
