BHUBANESWAR: As the political landscape heats up ahead of the polls, Congress clearly seems to be playing catch up with its rivals. Only on Saturday did the grand old party announce its candidate for Bhubaneswar parliamentary constituency (PC).
Yasir Nawaz, a fresh face and state president of National Students Union of India (NSUI), will take on BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi and Manmath Routray of the BJD.
A closer look at the past suggests Bhubaneswar, the seat of power in Odisha, has turned into Congress’ Achilles heel as the voters have gradually distanced themselves from the grand old party. Historically, Bhubaneswar PC was a Congress bastion till 1971. Winning the seat in the next five decades has only proven to be a struggle, with changing political dynamics and local factors influencing electoral outcomes of the constituency.
After constituency reorientation, Bhubaneswar got its first Lok Sabha MP in Nrusingha Charan Samantasinghar, a Congress candidate in 1957. The party was also re-elected from the seat three times in a row. Raja Purna Chandra Deo Bhanj won in 1962, while Chintamani Panigrahi won in 1967 and 1971 from Bhubaneswar seat on Congress ticket.
Post-Emergency, the mood of Bhubaneswar voters changed. The seat, for the first time, went to CPM after Congress was rejected nationally by the Janata Party coalition in 1977. Between 1977 and 1996, Bhubaneswar chose Congress and CPM, each party winning three times from the seat almost alternatively.
However, from 1998 onwards, the party faced an uphill battle to retain the Lok Sabha seat. After Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik lost to Prasanna Patsani of the BJD in the 1998, the constituency went on to be a stronghold of the BJD which retained it for the next three terms. It was BJP’s firebrand Aparajita Sarangi who broke that winning streak in 2019. The Congress, meanwhile, not only lost the seat but also whatever grip it enjoyed. The party did not field any candidate from the seat in 2019 general elections and backed CPI (M) candidate Janardan Pati as part of its a seat-sharing formula.
Political analysts and leaders attribute the Congress party’s challenges in Bhubaneswar to a combination of factors, including disaffection of the voters and the emergence of formidable opponents.
There was not a party that could challenge the Congress in Bhubaneswar till the mid 1970s, CPI (M) leader Pati said. “However, the political scenario changed post-Emergency in 1977 when a strong anti-Congress sentiment gripped the middle-class in the constituency. This helped CPI (M) to win in 1977,” he said.
Later, support of Janata Party and Janata Dal, that captured the mood of the middle-class helped CPI (M) win from the seat, while BJP’s plans to make inroads through a regional party towards 1998 succeeded in impacting Congress’s prospect in the seat further, he pointed out.
Analysts say political scenario in Bhubaneswar has always been a reflection of the changing political dynamics at the state and national level. “Whenever a party has won elections at national level or state-level, it has been reflected in Bhubaneswar PC. The Congress represented the Lok Sabha seat mostly when it was in power either at the Centre or state. The wave in favour of national leadership or state leadership has always been key to winning the Bhubaneswar PC,” said former professor of Political Science in Utkal University Anil Kumar Mohapatra.
It also must be seen from the perspective of voting behaviour of Bhubaneswar where polling used to be very low. In 1999, the polling rate was 47.43 pc which rose to 57.24 in 2004. In 2014 and 2019, the Lok Sabha seat saw 58.38 and 59.17 pc polling respectively.
Congress sources said, under JB Patnaik’s rule, the grand old party lost confidence of voters of the economically-weaker sections, mostly slum-dwellers, whose numbers not only grew consistently but mattered greatly to political parties. On the other hand, the so-called upper-class remained aloof to voting.
The Congress which recorded a vote share of 28.86 pc in 1999 went on a slide. In 2004, its candidate got 20.77 pc votes which dropped to 16.34 pc in 2014. Last polls, the Congress did not field any candidate and backed CPI (M)’s Pati who secured less than 2.5 pc of the total votes polled.
Political observers argue that it was the lack of strong organisational base that prompted Congress to back CPI (M) candidate in 2019.