Berhampur: The political scenario in Patrapur block under Chikiti Assembly segment in Ganjam district is witnessing a change as the BJP wrested the zilla parishad (ZP) zone no-34 from BJD after a period of two decades, a report said.
The block consists of 23 panchayats with the majority of voters being Telugu-speaking people and tribals. Among the 23 samiti members elected in the recently-held rural polls, 13 were supported by BJP.
The saffron party got a shot in the arm after a Congress backed samiti member supported the BJP. Moreover, the BJP bagging the chairperson and vice-chairperson posts in Patrapur block has dealt a heavy blow to the ruling party.
The changing political scenario in Chikiti Assembly segment is likely to queer the pitch of the ruling party in future.
Chikiti being a sensitive Assembly segment has witnessed tough battles between Chintamani Dyan Samantara of Congress and Chikiti queen and current BJD MLA Usha Devi at different points of time.
Chintamani contested elections seven times from 1980 to 2009 and won thrice to become the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Odisha Assembly.
Similarly, Usha Devi contested elections from this Assembly segment for eight times from 1985 to 2019 and won six times. She became cabinet minister twice.
However, Chintamani did not contest the 2014 elections and left the seat for his son. His son Manoranjan contested on a Congress ticket and was defeated by Usha Devi.
Later, Manoranjan joined BJP and fought with Usha Devi in 2019 elections.
However, he was defeated despite putting up a tough fight against the ruling party candidate. Being an ex-Congress man, Manoranjan managed to get all the Congress votes while the candidate fielded by the Congress lost his deposit.
Manoranjan is leaving no stone unturned to expand the BJP’s organisational network in this constituency. The work of Manoranjan has borne fruit in panchayat elections for Patrapur block.
This has dealt a heavy blow to the BJD. According to reports, Chikiti and Patrapur blocks were part of the Berhampur Assembly segment till 1961 election.
Chikiti became a separate Assembly segment in 1967 and Dibakar Pattanik from Congress became its first MLA. Chikiti royal Sachhidananda Narayan Dev won twice (1971 and 1974) from Jan Congress and Congress.
Jagannath Pati from Janata Party won this seat in 1977 while Chintamani fought as an independent candidate in 1980 and won. He won for the second time in 1985.
Usha Devi became an MLA for the first time on a Janata Dal ticket in 1990. Later, Chintamani won in 1995 as an independent. Subsequently, Usha Devi continued her winning streak from this seat from 2000 to 2019.
PNN
