With 32 Grads, 36 Post Grads, 4 doctorates 16th Odisha Assembly is House of professionals

101 MLAs in the 147-member House are graduates or more qualified 
Pro-tem Speaker Amar Prasad Satpathy waiting for newly-elected MLAs to administer oath at Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar on Friday | irfana
Pro-tem Speaker Amar Prasad Satpathy waiting for newly-elected MLAs to administer oath at Odisha Assembly in Bhubaneswar on Friday | irfana

BHUBANESWAR: Politics is no longer a murky world for professionals in Odisha. Contrary to the common belief that the white-collared men have a disdain for politics, 2019 elections witnessed a record participation of professionals in the State. According to the statistics released by Odisha Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), as many as 29 graduate professionals, including one IITian and an NITian have been elected to the 16th Legislative Assembly.

This apart, 32 graduates, 36 postgraduates and four with doctorate degree have become lawmakers. This is for the first time that 101 legislators in the 147-member House are graduates or have more academic qualification. IIT-Kharagpur alumnus Tusharkanti Behera, who won from Kakatpur Assembly segment to become the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology as well as Sports and Youth Services, said it is a healthy indication that more professionals or qualified persons are joining politics.  

“More professionals with skills and qualifications must come into politics even if they lack political background. If you are concerned about the future of the State, get involved in politics and serve people,” he said. This time, several political parties had roped in professionals from different backgrounds for campaign strategy and data analytics, a trend which was hardly seen before. Some professionals were also made spokespersons of parties for their debating skills and distinct narration. 

Retired political science professor Santosh Sarangi said the educated taxpaying professionals are normally the ones who can bring values and convictions to politics. They have the most direct stake in questioning the power. “2019 polls prove that the professionals are no more staying aloof from the political process. The times are changing and it is for the good,” opined Sarangi.

The 16th Assembly is a blend of both the old hands and new faces. Two MLAs are aged between 25 and 30 years while 13 are between 31 and 40 years of age. There are 123 MLAs who have declared their age in the bracket of 41 to 70 years and eight are above 70.

While BJD MLA from Choudwar-Cuttack Souvic Biswal is the youngest MLA at 27, Congress MLA from Balangir Narasingha Mishra and BJD MLA from Bhograi Ananta Das are the most experienced at 78. 
Meanwhile, as many as 60 MLAs have been re-elected in this election and their average assets have doubled. While the average asset of re-elected MLAs in 2014 was Rs 2.20 crore, it was Rs 4.90 crore this time. 
The average assets of MLAs have witnessed a rise over the last two elections. While the average of assets per MLA was Rs 1.71 crore in 2009 and Rs 3.22 crore in 2014, it was Rs 4.41 crore in 2019 elections. 

While 28 MLAs own assets worth Rs 5 crore and above, 50 have property in a range between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore and 37 legislators have assets between Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore.The average asset of Congress MLAs was more than that of BJD and BJP legisltors. While the average asset per MLA for nine Congress legislators was Rs 5.67 crore, it was Rs 5.08 crore for 112 BJD MLAs and Rs 1.01 crore for 23 BJP MLAs. Of 146 MLAs this time, 13 are women. The number of women lawmakers was 11 in 2014.

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