US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Gamang will overcome the challenge from his own party

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

More than the Opposition, it is his own partymen that Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang is wary of in the assembly constituency of Laxmipur where a by-poll will be held on Monday.

Laxmipur is part of the Koraput Lok Sabha seat that Gamang has been winning since 1971. This time, though his victory is a foregone, what is of importance is the margin by which he wins the seat.

Anantram Majhi, the Congress legislator who has been elected from Laxmipur five times and vacated it for Gamang, had won the seat by a margin of 30,000 votes last time. Now Gamang must improve on this.

Gamang is confident that he will have no problem winning the seat with a "record margin".

"I am not competing as I have no competitor," the chief minister said, making light of the challenge thrown by his lone opponent, Bibhishan Majhi of the Biju Janata Dal.

But Gamang has to contend with certain factors that go against him. The first is dissension in his party. Senior leaders in the area Ramachandra Ulaka and Habibulla Khan, both former ministers, are upset with Gamang for not giving them place in his ministry. Also, former chief minister J B Patnaik's followers are likely to work against him.

Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, the state Youth Congress president, is a committed follower of Patnaik and that is the reason why the Youth Congress has not thrown its lot behind Gamang. Sensing such opposition, Gamang has instructed party workers not to allow any Congress leader, minister or MLA into his constituency without his permission.

Another factor that will go against Gamang is the proposed aluminium plant at Kashipur that faces stiff opposition from tribals. Gamang is yet to make his stand on the plant clear, so NGOs in the area have thrown in their lot with Majhi who has made his opposition to the project public.

Kashipur, one of the four blocks in Laxmipur, has 70,154 voters. Majhi, who resigned to make way for Gamang, has already alienated 10,000 tribal families with his pro-aluminium plant stand.

In Bandhugaon and Narayanpatra blocks, the spread of Naxalite activity has already weakened Congress. Since 80 per cent of the 36,000 voters in these two blocks are tribals who are upset with the Congress, the BJD has concentrated its campaign here.

That leaves Laxmipur block with about 32,000 voters. Laxmipur is still a predominantly Congress pocket.

But political pundits say that though the tribals are not too happy with the government, a large number of them remain loyal to the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family. So in the end posters of Indira, Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi may still save the day for Gamang.

Tell us what you think of this report