Comment by Birendra Raj:
This is absolutely bullshit and misleading on your part to say that Puspendra Singh Deo (BJD) won because of intra party conflict of Congress and Surendra Pattjoshi taking away chunk of congress votes.
Please remember Puspendra Singh Deo won by a handsome margin of 22800 appx votes. Even if you add the 18000 votes of Surendra Pattjoshi and add to Rasabihari Behera (Cong), still Puspendra would have won the seat by 5000 votes.
Please accept the fact that Dharamgarh constituency voters have rejected the Bramhin caste based tyranical politics of Mr Behra, Mr. Pattjoshi and Mr. Panda and chose to elect the youth leader with a clean image of Mr. Puspendra Singh Deo .
Response to the comment by Birendra Raj:
Your number & figures are accepted but not your castist view. Are you aware about intra fighting in Dharamgarh congress, those who did not get ticket? Those people not only supported Mr Pattjoshi but also BJD. Hira Bag also took many congress votes. After the election district congress put notice on these people.
http://kalahandia.blogspot.com/2009/04/kalahandi-dcc-dismisses-8-party-workers.html
Rarely there was politics based on caste in Kalahandi/Dharamgarh. In my knowledge both Mr Pattjoshi and Mr. Behera were elected only once as MLA. Mr. Behera was elected another time as first congress MP, otherwise Kalahandi was bastion of former Maharaja P K Deo for 30 years. In fact, presently all the elected leaders, MLAs & MPs have been non-brahmin since past decade in the region and historically most of the elected leaders in Kalahandi were non-brahmins except few cases which can be counted using fingures.
One can not say Mr Pattjoshi, Mr. Panda and Mr. Behera received support from one caste (Brahmins are still a minority group in the region though economically better than others but this is the trend for whole India, Dharamgarh is not only region in the nation). I think you are trying to bring caste into it which was not a deciding factor. Mr Pattjoshi received 18800 votes which is not small for a MLA candidate for a party like SP in Orissa. His support came not only from brahamins/upper caste but from all castes, specially, in Dharamgarh block. Singhdeo (has been representing Koksara for last 14 years, may not be called youth or fresh candidate) comes from Jamidari family, which was more powerful then Brahmin Gontia in Kalahandi if you know about history. If Mr. Bikram Deo lost this election, one can not say people rejected King/Jamidari power. If Bhakta babu had lost past 3 elections consecutively, nobody said people rejected dalit (schedule caste) candidate. In fact Bhakta babu has substantial good rapport among Brahmins in Kalahandi. All these results are just coincidence and there is rarely caste factor in Orissa in the election. But there are few (unsecured) people who are trying to play caste card but has failed so far. Future will tell whether it will play important role in Kalahandi like in Bihar or UP though BSP is improving its caste tally in Orissa.
On image of Mr. Singhdeo: please find in Koksara. I feel his votes were largely due to Naveen babu and from congress rivals who supported him. Are you also aware about the money power? It’s a public forum, if you are interested we can discuss personally on the candidates in Kalahandi who bought votes from poor people by using money power. For your information, money power was repeated second time by two candidates in Kalahandi (a leader who has tasted that money can win him/her an election rarely serious about development of his/her constituency)
Last 3 times Mr. Singdeo has been representing Koksara, how many times he has come in news for any reasons? Educated people in the region say Mr. Bira Sipka was more active then Mr. Singhdeo. Mr. Singdeo was also alleged to be slow and lazy in his constituency among all past MLAs in Kalahandi. For getting state govt approval for a college in Koksara region, people approached Durjyodhan Majhi, Pardeep Naik, Bira Sipka etc, why if their own representative Mr. Singhdeo could have done this?
I rarely find him in the news for any initiatives for Kalahandi's development in last 10-15 years. But I did find Pradeep Naik, Himansu Meher, Bira Sipka and Durjyoodhan Majhi in the news on their initiatives on Kalahandi.
I still think BJD won in Dharamgarh due to congress’s intra-fighting despite the number/figure shows different and Naveen babu’s popular scheme did influence voters in Kalahandi, becasue Bhakta babu has substantial supporters in Dharamgarh region and congress MP got more votes then BJD MP in the region.
If Mr. Singhdeo is a good candidate, let’s see and hope, he has mandate for next 5 years and I keep on monitoring news sources.
I wish he becomes a good and dynamic representative for Kalahandi as he is young and educated and not the way he represented past 14 years and ignored Koksara contituency.
3 comments:
Dear Sir
Its really heartening to see you responding to my comment on my response and discussed this at length.
I was not off the mark when I said the voters of Dharamgarh has rejected the caste based politics as I have really witness this at close quarters. However, I would like to buy your point, and taking my words off this context.
I believe you have some kind of grouse against Puspendra as you have totally downplayed his popularity in this momment of victory and given credit to intra-fighting in Congress and other factor. You have also taken offence to my words such as young, fresh, dynamic for Puspendra where as his chief competitors were pushing 70s (barring Janardan Panda).
No doubt, this win is largely due to the popularity of Naveen Pattnaik and his government's popular effective initiatives. Surprisingly when the whole Kalahandi went against Naveen wave, Puspendra won, representing a new constituency. So dont you feel he deserve a little bit of appriciation from a seasoned blogger like you.
You have admitted that Puspendra has been representating Koksar since last 14 years. Do you really feel he was buying votes to win all these elections. Do you really feel Mr.Pattjoshi, Mr. Panda and Mr. Behera fought and lost this election just because of BJD's money power.
Yes, he was not in the news like other MLA but may be his PR skills are weak, but instead of hearsay please visit Koksara & Jaipatna block to see the development work.
Its surprising why you chose to remain silent on the criminal past of Mr. Pattjoshi which even after being let off by Hon'ble court,he has failed to convince the voter about his innocence.
Hi,
If I hurt you please pardon me and do not take my view points personally, as you know winning and losing election can not be easily related to a single issue when competition is four corner like was in Dharamgarh, you will agree with me that caste politics is rare in Odisha.
I am aware about court case about Patajoshi, the reason he lost Janata Dal and SinghDeo family was given ticket, also Singhdeo got sympathy in the region in consecutive election. Neither I have any grouse against Mr. Singhdeo. My intetion was not to hurt you but make a healthy disucussion so that we get good things out of it. Recently I do criticize Mr. Singhdeo based on the feedback I received from Koksar region to bring him to the track, I have great expectation from him. I met one of his distance relative in Tokyo and keep monitoring about his work since past few years. I know Koksara and Jaiptna area, during my each visit some how I visit some of the area. Any big contribution he has made in pat 14 years in the region? Indravati irrigation projects in Jaipatana region was not his contribution anyhow, what about road? Moter-Jaipatna road has become worst in a decade, remmber how was this road in 1990s, or any other major roads in the region? Farmers in Behera, Gotomunda, Kaudola, Koksara, Ampani, Kenduguda, are repeatedly asking state Govt to extend Indravati irrigation project to their region, nothing could be achined though Mr. Singhdeo kept promising them. Whereas Bira Sipka was instumental in town hall in Dharamgarh and extension of Indravati irrigation project in Dharamgarh block making bridge over Tel river. Bira Sipka (also BJD) took inititiative for a law college in Dharamgarh though it failed later on. What about Koksara region? I agree some of your points and think its valid. If we will say he was not unpopular among voters will be more appropirate like Bikram Deo in 2004. In Kalahandi, the good thing about royal and jamidari family is eventhough they do not do great work they do not do anything BAD. I also do not think it was money power which made him a winner, but I was commenting about "his image" that you pointed out (this is what I got input from village people Koksara, Behera region). Clean image poeple do not induldge in such activity, but you may argue in pilticts it happens, I may accept to certain extend but others BJD MLA did not receive such allegation, why?
There were many factors, Dharamgarh block where he was new, he also got equal support, not for candidate but for Naveen babu, see the vote trend blockwise, you will find what I meant. I agree he needs appreciation and thanks for your vaild point. I was also expecting him to be a minister and which he becomes now. I will be posting my view about his strength, weakness and what he can do in his constituency in our blog. We also should not blindly tolerate what our leaders have been doing, rather make them alert that we are watching them. Mr. Singhdeo is a winner, we should give him the message we are watching and his journey can be rough if he fails this time, becasue Kalahandi needs development and not image.
Just a note, in case you know any major achievement by Mr. Singh Deo in his constituency in last 14 years, please educate us, so that we balance our views. I have nothing against Mr. Singh Deo personally. We will be happy to publish his contribution for all our readers, which will help to understand him well.
Post a Comment