BHUBANESWAR: It is a fight between unequals in the Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat in the ensuing election.
The BJP has fielded Malvika Keshari Deo, wife of the scion of the erstwhile royal family of Kalahandi Arka Keshari Deo. Malvika is pitted against Lambodar Nial of the BJD, who had earlier contested twice unsuccessfully from the Khariar Assembly seat. The Congress has fielded a grassroots worker Draupadi Majhi, who had successfully contested panchayat and Zilla Parishad elections.
The fight has turned curious in the Lok Sabha seat known to outside world for altogether different reasons like poverty, starvation and overall backwardness in the past. The BJP has fallen back on the hold of the royal family on the voters of the district to retain the seat. The BJD has played the caste card in nominating Nial, who belongs to Yadav caste which constitutes a sizeable chunk of the voters in the constituency.
The BJD, though, had reposed faith on the royal family members from the seat during the last two elections. While Arka had successfully contested from the seat in 2014 election, the party had fielded former minister Puspendra Singhdeo, a member of the Junagarh royal family, in 2019. Puspendra, the president of the Kalahandi district BJD had lost to Basanta Kumar Panda of the BJP.
All eyes will be on the fight between a commoner and a political leader who has twice tasted defeat at the hustings like Nial and a first-timer Malvika. Though a newcomer, Malvika has the legacy of the royal family behind her. The question is will there be a turnaround with the BJD fielding a member from the Yadav caste to challenge the royal supremacy or will the BJP’s strategy to count on the royal family’s hold on the constituency be successful.
In fact, Bikram Keshari Deo, father of Arka Keshari, had won as a BJP candidate from the constituency for three times consecutively in 1998, 1999 and 2004. Before that, Bikram’s father Pratap Keshari Deo had won from the seat for five consecutive times from 1957 to 1977 as Ganatantra Parishad, Swatantra Party and Independent candidate.
The seat was wrested from the BJP in 2009 by Bhakta Charan Das of the Congress. Arka Keshari had joined the BJD in 2014 and won the seat the same year. He had resigned from the ruling BJD in 2019 after it fielded Puspendra Singhdeo from the seat and returned to BJP in 2023.