Bhubaneswar(Dhamnagar Bypoll 2022): How much will the results of the Dhamnagar by-election affect the 2024 elections? There is a lot of speculation from all parties about that. Rebel party leader Rajendra Das or Raju Das is trying to resolve the dhamnagar by-election equation. On the other hand, in the history of Dhamnagar, rebel candidates are decisive in victory and defeat. Bjd’s rebel leader Rajendra Das or Raju Das is contesting as an independent candidate in the ongoing by-election. So the outcome of the entire election depends on him. That is, the history of Raju Das or a party rebel leader like him will tell who will win and who will lose in Dhamnagar this time.
Manas Ranjan Mallik, elder brother of the present Bhadrak MLA, and Bijay Nayak, uncle of sitting Chandbali MLA Byomkesh Rai, and rajudas have been in the news as rebel leaders of the party. Before we know their history, let’s know the Dhamnagar constituency.
Even when the Congress was in power in the country, the Dhamnagar constituency was not a Congress stronghold. In 1967, Hridananda Mallick, the father of the sitting Bhadrak MLA, was fielded by the Congress from this constituency, but at that time he got only 8,172 votes. Satyabhama Dei of The Odisha Jana Congress, founded by Dr. Harekrishna Mahtab, former Chief Minister of Odisha and son of Agarpara soil of Bhadrak, won the election by defeating Hridananda Mallik. At that time, Satyabhama Dei got 40,397 votes. Before Satyabhama, the Dhamnagar constituency was held by the Congress.
In the 1971 elections, Hridananda Mallick had quit the Congress and was fielded from a new party floated by Biju Patnaik in the name of Utkal Congress. That time he won with 50% or 25,682 votes. But in 1974, Congress leader Jagannath Rout came forward to take on Hridanand Mallik. But by just 713 votes, he lost to Hridanand Mallik that time. Jagannath Rout got 21,082 votes while Hridanand Mallik got 21,795 votes.
From 1975 to 1977, after Indira Gandhi’s emergency, the Congress started falling in the country. Jai Prakash Narayan emerged as a strong leader in the country opposing Indira’s emergency. Morarji Desai became the first non-Congress Prime Minister in 1977 on behalf of the Janata Party founded by Jayaprakash Narayan.
Its impact was also seen in the 1977 Dhamnagar elections. Earlier, Hridananda Mallick, who was the candidate of Biju Patnaik’s Utkal Congress party, filed his nomination papers from the Janata Party that time. Because in 1974, Biju Patnaik’s ukral Congress party merged with the Bharatiya Lok Dal. In that election, leaders like the rising Jagannath Rout also fell apart as the anti-Congress wave continued in the country. Despite hard work, Congress’s Jagannath Rout had to concede defeat by 3,841 votes. Hridanand Mallik of the Janata Party won with 24,720 votes.
But two years later, by the time of the 1980 elections, Dhamnagar became a Congress bastion under the leadership of Jagannath Rout. For a whole decade, till 1990, Dhamnagar remained a Congress stronghold under the leadership of Jagannath. Hridanand Mallik, who had been fighting jagannath for decades, took over the Dhamnagar constituency in the 1990 elections as a candidate from the Janata Dal founded by V.P. Singh. That year, he got 52,620 votes.
But he passed away within a few days of the election and the by-election was held here. In the by-election, his son Manas Ranjan Mallik won as a candidate from the same Janata Dal and went to the assembly.
Dhamnagar MLA Vishnu Sethi has also swargabased in this election. Suryavanshi Suraj, son of late Vishnu Sethi, is contesting the by-election. Since 1985, the bjp leader had reached Dhamnagar maidan.
In 1985, Manmohan Samal was born from Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s Bharatiya Jana Sangh and started contesting from this constituency from the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the 1985 elections, Manmohan Samal got only 5% of the votes i.e. 3,564 votes. Similarly, in the 1990 elections, he contested from here and got about 7% of the votes or 6,458 votes.
But in the 1995 elections, Congress’s Jagannath Rout made a comeback. The Congress defeated the then MLA Manas Ranjan Mallick, son of Janata Dal candidate Hridanand Mallik, by a margin of 961 votes. In the same year, Janaki Ballabh Patnaik also made a comeback to power. In the same year’s election, i.e. in 1995, manmohan samal’s vote share doubled to 13.5%. In that election, Manmohan Singh got 15,691 votes. In 1995, late MLA Bishnu Sethi contested from Chandbali and got 11 per cent of the votes. Vishnu Sethi got 14,495 votes while Netranand Mallik of the Congress got 48,238 votes.
On the other hand, after the death of Biju Patnaik in April 1997, his son Naveen Patnaik took over the reins of the state politics. In the 1998 Lok Sabha elections held in 1998, he contested 12 seats and won nine and became the Minister of Mines at the Centre in Vajpayee’s 13-month government. In the 13th Lok Sabha elections in 1999, Naveen’s BJD won 10 of the 12 seats it had fielded.
In the 12th state assembly elections in 2000, the BJP-BJD alliance won 68 of the 84 seats and formed the government. Naveen Patnaik resigned from the post of Union Minister and became the Chief Minister of Odisha.
In that 2000 assembly election, a rebellion started in Dhamnagar constituency. The alliance gave ticket to BJP’s Manmohan Samal, who was then a candidate for three consecutive terms and was increasing his vote share. Manas Ranjan Mallick, who had lost by less than a thousand votes in the previous elections, however, did not accept it. Manas contested the election as an independent and won against a party like the present Raju. At that time, Jagannath of the Congress got 32,183 votes and went to number three. The vote share for the alliance’s candidate Manmohan Samal increased from 13.5 to 33.5. Manmohan Singh got 36,844 votes. But rebel Manas won with 38,547 votes. In terms of the role of independent candidates in Dhamnagar, the year 2000 was discussed all over the state. Both Vajpayee and Naveen had gone to campaign for the alliance candidate and state BJP president Manmohan Samal, and Sonia Gandhi herself came to campaign for the then MLA and former minister Jagannath Rout, who was fielded from the Congress. Manas Mallik, elder brother of sitting Bhadrak MLA Sanjeev Mallik, won the seat by defeating both of them. Bishnu Sethi, a coalition candidate from Chandbali, won the 2000 elections by defeating Netranand and became a first-time MLA. This is the story of the revolt of the 2000 elections.
Similarly, in 2004, there was a revolt in the BJD. At that time, vijay nayak, the uncle of the sitting Chandbali MLA, rebelled. Chandbali was a reserved seat during the BJD-BJP coalition government at that time and it was under the BJP quota. Vishnu Sethi was an MLA from the same seat in 2000. In 2004, the alliance again fielded Vishnu. Senior BJD leader From Chandbali, Bijay Nayak, was opposing the candidature of Bishnu Sethi. Raju Das contested from Chandbali as an independent that time due to the feud between Vijay and Vishnu. Bishnu Sethi, Vijay Nayak and Rajudas all live in the Tihidi area. In order to defeat Vishnu Sethi by opposing the decision of the alliance, Vijay fielded his loyalist Raju Das as an independent from the reserved Chandbali seat in the 2004 assembly elections. As a result, the BJD suspended both Vijay and Raju. Raju burst the coconut and preached in such a way that Vishnu Sethi lost. Raju Das got 22,855 votes in vijay and Raju’s strategy skills.
Raju took so many votes that Vishnu Sethi, despite working very hard, lost to Congress candidate Netranand Mallik by 1475 votes. After this, both Bijoy Nayak and Raju became the main heroes for the BJD.
In the 2004 lok Sabha elections, the vote share of The Alliance’s candidate Manmohan Samal in Dhamnagar increased from 33.5 to 48.5%. That time, he got 63,557 votes and laid the foundation for the Congress to uproot its roots. He also became the revenue minister in Naveen’s second term.
Then came the 2009 elections. By then Dhamnagar had become a reserved seat. Raju Das’s Kanpada panchayat remained in Dhamnagar due to the re-demarcation of the constituency in 2009. At that time, there was a rift between the BJP and the BJD. The two parties fought separately. Both Vijay and Raju, who became heroes in the 2004 elections, got tickets. Since Chandbali was un-reserved, Bijay Nayak contested from BJD and since Dhamnagar was reserved, bjd gave ticket to Raju Das. Both Raju and Vijay emerged victorious and went to the assembly. Meanwhile, Manmohan Samal, who has steadily increased his vote share since 2009 to make Dhamnagar his stronghold, left the constituency for Chandbali due to the reserved seat. On the other hand, Manmohan is not able to come to power again as Chandbali is the stronghold of BJD’s strongman Bijay Nayak. Vijay Nayak’s nephew is now an MLA. And there is talk that the whole politics is going on at his behest.
Then came the 2014 elections. But the BJD denied ticket to Raju Das, who was an MLA from Dhamnagar, and gave ticket to a block president at that time. From 2014 onwards, the block president turned out to be time for Raju. But then Raju did not rebel and sat quietly. And for that silence, people are saying that his political career has been covered in dark clouds. Once the power is left to someone else, people are saying that it is difficult to return. In the 2014 elections, the BJD won by fielding Muktikanta Mondal. Bjp’s Vishnu Sethi, who left Chandbali for Dhamnagar, was forced to concede defeat for the second time.
Then, during the 2019 elections, there was talk that the party did not give ticket to MLA Muktikanta Mondal due to a controversy over a murder case. But she managed to grab the BJD’s women’s card. He succeeded in making his wife stand as an MP from bhadrak. Because he’s good at dealing somewhere. For 2019, the BJD chose Raju Das without finding any other way÷ out. But raju alleged that he was lost somewhere. But the person against whom he is levelling these allegations was in a do-or-die situation. The margin-winning formula for the BJD came as the son of an unbeatable leader from Bhadrak stood in mp from the BJP. Therefore, there is talk of where the deal was made with the BJP to win the kale bale ko÷sale. On the other hand, Vishnu Sethi, who had faced two defeats in Dhamnagar for this deal, admitted non-officially that he was able to win. As a result, Raju Das had to accept defeat by about 5,000 votes.
It is said that this dispute has made Raju sit in such a boat today. Had Raju got a ticket in the BJD, another strong power centre would have been set up in Dhamnagar, which is likely to be a time for a leader in the future. So Raju’s ticket was cut off by making a deal.
Mla Vishnu Sethi passed away after not completing his 2019 election term. So now is the by-election. The BJD has fielded a new candidate in the by-election. She is the current Tihidi block president, Avanti Das. The BJP has fielded the son of late MLA Vishnu Sethi in the hope of sympathy votes. He is led by Manmohan Samal, who has been ousted from power in Dhamnagar by continuously increasing votes. However, the Congress has fielded Baba Harekrishna.
Since 2009, in the previous elections of the Dhamnagar constituency, the party has been reducing its vote share by 50% every time. In the 2000 elections, the Congress got 32,000 votes, while in 2004 it got 34,500 votes. In 2009, it dropped by a few votes to 29,800 votes. But in the 2014 elections, the number of votes fell to 12,000. In the last election of 2019, the Congress’s vote share has reached 7,000. In the 2014 and 2019 elections, the Congress’s votes ran away.
It is not just the BJD MLAs who have revolted in Dhamnagar. Ashok Nayak, husband of the Dhamnagar panchayat samiti president, has also played a rebel in the past. In the 2017 zilla parishad elections, dhamnagar vikas manch was formed in alliance with the BJP. The stage had stunned the BJD in Dhamnagar. No one won on the conch symbol in Dhamnagar block in the zilla parishad elections. At that time, the BJD had also suspended Ashok from the party. But the suspension was later lifted, Ashok took over the reins of the panchayat samiti and his wife is now the chairperson.
The politics of Dhamnagar in the entire state is completely different. There is no guarantee that party workers will abide by the party’s decision here. Here the workers leave the party and choose the leader of their choice. So only political equations can make clear what the Dhamnagar voter will do. On the other hand, the BJD is also apprehensive about whether the shankh hawa or naveen magic will work or not.
