NABARANGPUR : With BJD, BJP and Congress announcing their candidates for Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency, a high-pitched battle for the seat is on cards. The contest will be triangular among Pradeep Majhi of Congress, BJP’s Balabhadra Majhi and Ramesh Majhi of the ruling BJD. The battle is set to get more interesting as all the three candidates belong to Jharigam Assembly segment.
Pradeep, a former MP, is a known figure as he has been actively involved in local issues and party activities for the last two decades. He hails from a political family of Taliamba in Jharigam. His father Bhagaban Majhi was a Rajya Sabha MP while his grandfather Nilamber Majhi unsuccessfully contested from the constituency during the 1967 elections. Pradeep came to limelight when he highlighted the malnutrition deaths of 11 children in Dongiriguda, a non-revenue village located in the reserve forest under Jharigam block, in 2002.
The former MP’s political career took off after he was chosen by Congress to contest the Zilla Parishad polls in 2007. He won the election and at the age of 32, was elected as the president of Nabarangpur Zilla Parishad. In 2008, he was appointed secretary of Indian Youth Congress and later, made the Odisha Youth Congress president.
He was nominated by the party to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 from Nabarangpur, which he won by a margin of 30,830 votes. In 2014 polls, he lost the seat by a thin margin of 2,042 votes. Pradeep is currently the working president of Pradesh Congress Committee.
BJD’s nominee Ramesh Majhi also belongs to a political family of Dandamunda village under Chandahandi block. Son of former Minister late Jadav Majhi, Ramesh stared his political career at the age of 20 and in 1997, was elected as panchayat samiti member of Dhodipani and became the chairman of Chandahandi panchayat samiti. Later in 2007, he became Zilla Parishad member from Chandahandi block.
Ramesh was first elected to Odisha Legislative Assembly from Dabugam in 2004 and at 27, became the youngest MLA. Later, when Jharigam seat was created after delimitation, he contested from the segment, won it and became a Minister. He retained the seat in 2014 elections.
BJP candidate Balabhadra Majhi is from Phataki village under Chandhandi block. An engineering graduate from the erstwhile Regional Engineering College, Rourkea, he worked as the Chief Executive Engineer in the Railways before taking the plunge into politics. He contested from Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat as a BJD candidate in 2014 elections and emerged victorious.
Recently, Balabhadra resigned from BJD after he came to know that the ruling party will not give him a ticket and joined the saffron party. During his tenure as MP, he was actively involved in pursuing the Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Jeypore-Malkangiri railway line projects.
Electoral fight
● Balabhadra worked as the Chief Executive Engineer in the Railways before taking the plunge into politics
● Pradeep came to limelight when he highlighted the malnutrition deaths of 11 children in Dongiriguda
● Son of former Minister late Jadav Majhi, Ramesh stared his political career at the age of 20