Bhubaneswar: With most political parties targeting the youth pool of the electorate in 2024 elections, Odisha also witnessed rise of sons of some politicians.
In Dhamnagar Assembly constituency, BJP’s firebrand young leader Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajna is running ahead of Sanjay Kumar Das of BJD by over 8,0oo votes by the end of 19 rounds of counting. Suraj is the son of veteran leader late Bishnu Das.
Bishnu Das, who was the MLA of the constituency, died following prolonged illness in September 2022. This led to byelection in the seat and the BJP nominated his son Suraj as its candidate. Suraj was elected with a good margin in the bypoll.
Another fast rising young leader is Sagar Charan Das, who is the son of the state’s veteran politician Bhakta Charan Das. Contesting on Congress ticket, Sagar defeated Pradipta Kumar Naik of BJP with a margin of 13,741 votes.
Bhakta had started his political career during JP mov ement in 1977 in the wake of Emergency in the country. At the age of 30, he contested as Janata Party candidate in 1989 Lok Sabha election from Kalahandi constituency. He won by a large margin and was appointed Deputy Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs in the Union Ministry under Prime Minister VP Singh.
Das was also Minister of Railway during the short tenure of Chandra Sekhar as prime minister. Later, Das kept on jumping the parties before settling for Congress towards the end of his political career.
Three-time MLA from Choudwar-Cuttack Pravat Biswal’s son Souvic Biswal is another young turk rising in Odisha politics. Souvic, who contested from his father’s constituency on BJD ticket, defeated Nayan Kishore Mohanty of BJP by 17,750 votes in this election.
Pravat was embroiled in a major controversy following allegation of his involvement in Seashore Group scam of crores of rupees. The CBI had investigated into his role in the ponzi scam and filed chargesheet in the court.
This election also saw senior leader Bijoy Mohapatra fielding his son Arvind Mohapatra in Patkura Assembly seat. Arvind has taken a lead of 11,529 votes against his BJP rival Tejeswar Parida by 28 rounds of counting.
Bijoy was one of the leaders who were instrumental in forming the Biju Janta Dal (BJD) and getting Naveen Patnaik, the son of legendary Biju Patnaik, to lead the party in 1990s. Bijoy was also a minister in Naveen Cabinet for a long time.
Later, differences cropped up between Naveen and Bijoy and the BJD president kicked the latter out of the party for alleged anti-people activities. However, Bijoy continued to remain a force to reckon with in Odisha politics. He also switched over to BJP.
But the veteran leader took everyone by surprise in this election as he started campaigning for his son as a candidate of BJD which had sacked him unceremoniously.
