Indian Tribal News Service
Bhubaneswar
In a surprise development, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has picked a 51-year-old tribal activist Niranjan Bishi as one of its candidates for the four Rajya Sabha seats from the State that has fallen vacant due to the completion of tenure three members and resignation of another.
Besides Bishi, the party nominated Sasmit Patra, Sulata Deo and Manas Mangaraj. The election to the four Rajya Sabha seats necessitated after completion of tenure of Prasanna Acharya, N Bhaskar Rao and Sasmit Patra while the fourth seat fell vacant after the resignation of Subhash Chandra Singh after he was elected as the mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation.
It is the choice of the Saara tribal Bishi that has taken everyone by surprise, especially since he has been a strong critic of the Chief Minister and also as Naveen Patnaik has chosen to ignore the erstwhile royals of Bolangir — A. U. Singh Deo, a former minister and Rajya Sabha member, and his son Kalikesh Singh Deo, a former MP. The BJD has had a traditional association with the Bolangir royals.
Bishi is general secretary of Paschim Odisha Adivasi Kalyan Mahasangha and works in a power distribution company in Bolangir as an accountant. He is not a BJD member and has led several movements against the ruling BJD in the last few years.
With the Naveen Patnaik government announcing the conduct of the panchayat polls, Bishi was highly critical of his government’s move of no reservation for the tribals for the post of sarpanch in 23 of the 30 districts. The Mahasangha took to the streets protesting against the reduction in their reservation quota for the panchayat polls and gheraoed the office of the district collector in Bolangir for five hours alleging that the government was appeasing the OBCs at the expense of tribals.
The Mahasangha had announced that the tribals would socially boycott the ruling Biju Janata Dal and not allow any leader of the party to enter the villages if their voices are ignored.
Political observers said, Patnaik is seeking to reach out to the angry tribal community which constitutes 22.5 percent of Odisha’s population. He is also trying to weaken the BJP’s Bolangir stronghold with his move. The BJD has 113 MLAs in the 147-member house and is comfortably placed to send three members to the Upper House unopposed. Election for the fourth seat will happen if the BJP and Congress decide to put up a candidate.
