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Tribals of western Orissa will decide Biswal's fate

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

The wind that blows across western Orissa, better known as the "drought and starvation land," bodes ill for the ruling Congress.

Anti-establishment mood is easily discernible in most of the 47 seats in the region, comprising Kalahandi, Koraput, Sambhalpur, Malkangiri, Sundergarh and Bolangir districts. The voters want Chief Minister Hemanand Biswal out for failing to keep his promises:

The roads are still in disrepair, power supply is still erratic supply, health facilities are still near non-existent, land reforms still await implementation, and starvation deaths still continue unabated.

"Every election the politicians promise to change the face of the area," says Jagdish Pradhan, the convenor of the Paschim Orissa Krishijeevi Sangha. "But nothing has happened in 50 years of independence."

"It is not only the ruling Congress," Pradhan continues, "even the Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance is the same. The people expected much from the alliance but they have proved not better than the Congress."

A senior Congress leader from the region admits in private that his party's image has recieved such a battering that it can expect to win not more than a dozen of the region's 47 assembly seats.

"In the last two Lok Sabha elections, the Congress lost all the seats here. That indicates the party 's grip over its traditional vote base among the tribals has waned," he says.

Expectedly, the BJD-BJP alliance is pinning its hopes on this region. It is the people here who will decide its fate. But the combine has to face a threat from an unexpected quarter: the Bahujan Samaj Party, which, though a non-entity till yesterday, has strengthened its base this election.

"We may not open our accout but we are confident to emerge as the alternative force in this region," state BSP chief Akshay Mallick says. "The party has received good response in the region."

For their part, the BJD-BJP leaders are confident that they will repeat their performance of the last two Lok Sabha polls.

Union Minister Juel Oram is confident. "Everything is in our favour," he says.

He hopes that campaigning by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani in the region will further boost the combine's chances.

Where the Congress has lost out majorly is by its failure to exploit its major achievement, the setting up of the much-awaited Western Orissa Development Council. Last year, then chief minister Giridhar Gamang had fulfilled the party's poll promise. But the Congress has not focussed attention on this as yet.

In its manifesto, the party promises to give more powers to the WODC and the Kalahandi, Bolangir and Korapur Programme Authority if it comes to power. The KBKPA 's thrust is to alleviate the poverty and implement several long and short terms measures for generating employment and developing the region.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, during her campaigning in the KBK districts last week, promised more welfare programmes for the tribal people. Further, she said the Congress governemnt have given top priority to the area under the KBK long-term action plan.

The party, she went on, had planned a special council for the development of the western Orissa, but it did not materialise due to the noncooperation of the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre.

The BJD-BJP combine, meanwhile, is trying to exposed the state governemnt's "neglect" of the region in the last five years.

For its part, the BSP is campaigning hard. But its activities are harming the alliance more than the Congress because the MPs and most of the MLAs in the region come from the combine.

In the last five elections to the assembly, it is interesting to note that the electorate in western Orissa did not succumb to regionalism, which a section of leaders have been assiduously trying to whip up for political mileage.

In 1980, the Congress virtually made a clean sweep, wiping out the Janata Party. In 1985 too the Congress swept the poll.

In 1990, the situation underwent a drastic change, with the Janata Dal winning everything in sight. This was followed by Congress days again.

This election sees Chief Minister Hemanand Biswal, a few members of his cabinet and several former ministers of the BJD contesting from the four districts. The battle therefore assumes added significance.

For the Congress, Revenue Minister Jagannath Patnaik and Urban Development Minister Bhupinder Singh are in the fray from Kesinga and Junagarh seats respectively. Singh was the lone Congressmen to win from Kalahandi in the 1995 assembly election.

Traditionally, the Congress had been enjoying the tribals' support. But now the party is discovering a substantial erosion in its vote banks.

"The traditional voters have shifted their loyalty to BJD-BJP in the last two Lok Sabha polls," claims A U Singh Deo of the BJD, who is contesting from Bolangir.

In Bolangir, the Congress is in real trouble as it failed to remedy the main problem of the people. Namely, water. In a backward district, where the majority depend on agriculture, water is the most crucial issue in any election. Lack of irrigation facilities and employment are forcing thousands to migrate from the district every year. As per the governemnt's own record, only six per cent of the land have been irrigated here. Over 85 per cent people live below the poverty line.

Of the six assembly segments in Bolangir, the Congress won two seats in 1995. The BJD, JD and BJP won two seats each.

The fact that the BJD and BJP are contesting together this time should work in its favour.

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