E-Paper
Laxman Bag: Odisha’s giant killer who defeated Naveen Patnaik
Bag pooled all his resources and made labour migration the major issue in the area as his main agenda to target the BJD government
Amid the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) defeat in the Odisha assembly polls and rout in the Lok Sabha election, the biggest upset has come in Kantabanji assembly constituency where the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Laxman Bag defeated sitting chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday by over 16,000 votes.
Patnaik, 77, had contested from Kantabanji and his traditional seat of Hinjili in Ganjam district, a trend he started in 2019 when he contested from Bijepur in the western Odisha district of Bargarh. Unlike 2019, when he won both the seats, Patnaik lost Kantabanji while his victory margin substantially reduced as he won by a little over 4,600 votes over his BJP rival.
Born into a poor farming family, Bag worked as a daily wage labourer and even assisted a truck driver for livelihood. He later bought trucks and got into the transport business. In the 2014 elections, he finished third while in the 2019 elections, he narrowly lost to Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress by just 128 votes.
While Patnaik hardly campaigned in Kantabanji, known to be the gateway of migrant labourers from western Odisha to the brick kilns of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and construction sites of Tamil Nadu. Every year, thousands of poor youths from the western Odisha districts of Kalahandi, Nuapara, Bolangir, Sambalpur and Bargarh converge at Kantabanji railway station as they head for Hyderabad and Vishakhapatnam hoping to pay off the loans that they have taken. The cycle of debt unfortunately does not end for most of them, and the migration thus continues.
Bag, 48, pooled all his resources and made labour migration the major issue in the area as his main agenda to target the BJD government.
“There is unemployment, labour migration, a lack of education and healthcare infra. All these problems are going to end. A new beginning is going to happen as the new government will be formed on June 10,” Bag said a day after his victory. “People did all that they had to do, and the Prime Minister will reciprocate. The PM will show the path of development,” he said.
Local BJP and BJD leaders said they were stunned by the scale of Bag’s victory. “Though we knew he was ahead, we never expected him to beat Naveen Patnaik. This is unimaginable,” said Patnagarh MLA and BJP leader KV Singh Deo.
BJD leaders said Patnaik hardly campaigned as the apprehension that the five-time chief minister may desert the seat after winning Hinjili.
“People were not enthusiastic about Patnaik. Had he contested only from here, then he would have won. In 2019, he won from Hinjili and Bijepur, but left the latter. That was a major reason for his defeat in Kantabanji,” said a local BJD leader.
