Two of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Orissa have a unique record: they remained non-Congress forts for nearly three decades after Independence.
After refusing the Congress any foothold for 29 years, the two bastions-- Kalahandi and Balangir--fell to a Congress surge with the party winning 20 out of the 21 parliamentary seats after Indira Gandhi's resurgence in the post-Emergency era.
For the first two general elections in 1951 and 1957, Balangir was not a separate constituency, but was part of the Kalahandi double constituency.
In the first elections, the Kalahandi seat was represented by two Ganatantra Parishad (Orissa's first regional outfit) candidates-- Giridhari Bhoi and Maharaja of Patna (now Balangir) Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo who was to become Chief Minister of the state in 1967.
They defeated Jogeswar Kumbhar and Judhistir Mishra of the Congress respectively.
The maharaja of Kalahandi, Pratap Keshari Deo, who along with Singh Deo was the most prominent GP leader, and Bijay Pradhan, both of the regional party, won the twin seats at the expense of GS Das Thirani and Jogeswar Majhi of Congress in 1957.
In 1962, Balangir was carved out of Kalahandi constituency and elections were held separately for the seat. But Pratap Keshari Deo won Kalahandi again inflicting a massive defeat on Congress nominee Suresh Chandra Behera.
Even as Ganatantra Parishad merged with the Swatantra Party led by C Rajgopalachari after the 1962 Lok Sabha polls, Deo won the seat again in 1967 as a Swantantra nominee to register a hat-trick of wins from the seat.
He repeated the victory in 1971 as well and was elected again in 1977 as an independent defeating Gangadhar Hota of the Bharatiya Lok Dal for his fifth victory in a row.
The non-Congress fort, however, fell to the Congress overtures in 1980 when Ras Behari Behera was elected defeating Deo who contested on a Janata ticket. The Congress victory was repeated in 1984 when Jagannath Patnaik won at the expense of Deo again.
But since 1989, the seat has eluded the Congress grasp except once in 1991 when party nominee Subash Chandra Nayak won. Bhakta Charan Das won the seat twice in 1989 and 1996 on Janata Dal and Samata Party tickets respectively.
Deo's younger son Bikram Keshari Deo won the seat twice in 1998 and 1999 as a BJP candidate defeating Bhakta Charan Das, who had switched over to the Congress, on each occasion.
Balangir, which became a separate seat in 1962, was captured by H Mahananda of GP who defeated Congress nominee Sundaramani Nag.
Rajendra Narayan Singh Deo's elder son Raj Raj Singh Deo won the seat twice in 1967 and 1971 as a Swatantra candidate. Raj Raj's younger brother Ananga Uday--at present the steel and mines minister in the BJD-BJP government--was the Congress candidate in 1977 to be defeated by BLD's Ainthu Sahu.