In the election struggle, BJD wins the “royal” slice

For decades, Odisha’s electoral contests have been incomplete in the absence of royal representation. The subsequent two elections will be the same. Twelve royals are running this time, two as MP candidates and ten for Assembly seats.

 

The BJD has selected most of the royal candidates for the Assembly seats, while the BJP has selected its candidates for the Lok Sabha. Only one member of the royal family has been nominated by Congress.

Since independence, the royal families of Chikiti, Dharakote, and Khallikote have influenced elections in Southern Odisha. This time, Usha Devi and Nandini Devi, the queens of Dharakote and Chikiti, have made it possible for their youthful successors to carry on their political heritage. Right now, the moms are running campaigns for their sons.

Usha, the wife of Trigunateeta Deb, was elected to the Chikiti Assembly seat six times, having first done so in 1990 on a Janata Dal platform. Her father-in-law Sachidananda Narayan Deb was elected twice as the MLA of Chikiti on a Congress ticket in 1971 and 1974 before her. She has designated her engineer son Chinmayananda Srirup Deb, who is now in her 70s, to carry on the family legacy. With confidence in Usha’s decision, BJD has issued a ticket to Srirup.

This time, Sulakhyana Gitanjali Devi, the crowned “raja saheb” and third generation member of the royal family of Dharakote, has won the BJD ticket from the Sanakhemundi Assembly seat. Gitanjali, a former BJD MLA from Sanakhemundi, is the daughter of Nandini Devi, who entered politics seven years ago. In the 2019 elections, she managed her mother’s campaign. The BJP served as the political foundation for the Dharakote royals of the second generation. Leader of the BJP Kishore Chandra Singh Deo was married to Nandini and Dharakote ‘raja’. On a BJP ticket, Nandini ran for the seat in 2009 but was unsuccessful. She joined the BJD after Singh Deo’s passing, and in 2014, she won the seat’s MLA election.

The Dharakote royal family has been involved in Southern Odisha politics for three generations. It all started with Ananta Narayan Singhdeo, who had served as a cabinet minister and had won many times in the Soroda Assembly seat. Following him, his spouse Shanti Devi secured a seat for the previous Janata Dal, according to Bishnu Charan Choudhury, a former member of the political science department at Berhampur University.

While gadjats (princely realms) existed in Western Odisha in the past, zamindars in Southern Odisha were the ones who held the titles “raja” and “rani.” “They had a sizable fan base up until the 1970s and 1980s, but things really changed after that. At the moment, the image and vote banks of the political parties they represent—rather than their title as king or queen—are what win them the votes, Choudhury said.

The BJP has selected Kalahandi queen Malavika Keshari Deo as the face of Kalahandi MP and kept Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo as the Balangir MP candidate in Western Odisha. Sangeeta, a former minister and prominent BJP politician KV Singh Deo’s wife, has previously won four elections from the Balangir Lok Sabha constituency.

Balangir’s twice-elected MP, Kaliesh Narayan Singh Deo, is contesting this time from the Assembly section. KV is running on a BJP ticket from the Patnagarh seat.

The wife of former MP Arka Keshari Deo, Malavika, was nominated by the BJP for the Kalahandi Parliamentary seat. The royal couple, who had formerly belonged to the BJD, left the party in 2019 when their ticket was rejected, and they joined the BJP in 2023. Arka is the son of BJP politician and scion of the Kalahandi royal dynasty, Bikram Keshari Deo, who was elected to the seat three times.

Similarly, the BJD has fielded Pushpendra Singh Deo, a fellow royal, for the Dharmgarh seat and Bamanda queen Arundhati Devi, the wife of Deogarh monarch and BJP MP for Sambalpur, for the Deogarh Assembly.

Sanjukta Singh has also been nominated by the regional party to contest from the Angul seat. She is the spouse of Rajanikant Singh, an Angul royal family scion.

In contrast, Susmita Singh Deo, a descendant of the Dhenkanal royal dynasty, is the candidate the Congress is counting on to win the Dhenkanal Assembly seat. Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh, a BJP candidate, will run for the seat from Nayagarh. Aul royal family member Pratap Deb will run for the BJD seat in Aul.

Royal families still have a sway on voters today. People still think of themselves as the praja of the raja, especially in Balangir. Voters throughout the world regard members of the royal family highly and think that they are the ones who will pay attention to their needs and make an attempt to meet them. Political scientist Satya Prakash Das said that the royal family’s popularity in the political sphere is largely due to their image.