KENDRAPARA: Twenty-eight-year-old Dr Debasmita Sharma has entered the poll fray as Congress party candidate from Aul Assembly segment after quitting her job as a government doctor. During her campaigning she is treating patients too.
Aul Assembly seat is witnessing a triangular contest among sitting BJD law-maker and minister Pratap Keshari Deb, BJP candidate Krushna Chandra Panda and Congress’ Dr Debasmita.
She may have been a greenhorn to politics but Debasmita comes from a family of political leaders which served Aul Assembly segment multiple times.
“I sacrificed my job as a government doctor to serve the villagers. My grand-father Dr Dibakar Nath Sharma was also a physician and served the people of Aul when he was elected to the State Assembly in 1967 as a Congress candidate,” she recounts .
Her father Debendra Sharma also represented Aul as a Congress candidate in 2014. “Few years back, one of the kidneys of my father was damaged which is why I decided to contest,” said Debasmita.
For the 28-year-old doctor, treating the poor and the diseased is priority, even when she is canvassing in the Assembly segment, reaching out to far-flung areas of Kendrapara district.
“Most of the voters are aware that I am a physician as I was serving at the primary health center (PHC) at Rajkanika within Aul Assembly constituency for which I treat people during my campaigning,” said Dr Debasmita while treating a patient at Olaver village.
For her, it was a mission to help the poor and needy which is why she decided to contest from Aul. “Majority of the political leaders represent the corrupt political system. I will try to clean the system in a small way in my constituency,” the 28-year-old added.
Dr Debasmita says she is pained by the plight of poor elderly villagers who do not get any medical help. Due to non-availability of doctors in the PHCs, a large number of gullible people fork out their hard earned money for wrong, sometimes fatal treatment as quacks administer drugs and injections, she added. The non-availability of proper medical care in rural pockets has resulted in the mushrooming of quacks, she points out.
“Health is not an important poll issue for many candidates. But I have only one mission in my life and it is to provide good health care in my constituency,” said Dr Debasmita.
She treats many patients and gives medical prescriptions during her campaign for which she is quite popular among the voters, said Rajani Behera of Siali village.