Several people from Government service have evinced interest in politics and shot into fame in Baleswar district.
Kharabela Swain, three-time BJP MP, is a former bureaucrat. Though Swain had expected to contest polls from the Baleswar lok Sabha seat this time as a consensus candidate of Utkal Bharat and Aama Odisha, yet at the last moment he was fielded from Cuttack. After quitting the Indian Railway Service (IRS), he jumped into politics and won as an MP thrice from Baleswar.
Swain had lost elections on BJP symbol last time but formed Utkal Bharat to stay put in politics and pursue his political ambitions.Another successful man in politics is Ananta Das. After retiring from administrative service in the rank of ADM, he began several peasant movements during construction of four lanning of NH-60. This gave him a stepping stone into active politics.
He joined the BJD and obtained a ticket to fight elections from Bhograi Assembly constituency in 2004. The opportunity came to him when former Minister Kamla Das, a BJD stalwart of the area, was out from the party.While Das won the elections in 2004 and repeated his victory in 2009, this time again, he is fighting from the same constituency in a BJD ticket.
BJP nominee from Bhogarai seat Paresh Nayak, who is a retired Collector, too is fighting polls this time.Similarly, Soro’s sitting MlA Surendra Parmanik also achieved rapid strides as a politician. He is a retired administrative officer in the rank of ADM and had fought elections first on a Congress ticket and won.
However, this time, he has joined the BJD but has not been given a ticket from the seat. Instead, Parsuram Dhada has been fielded as the ruling party candidate from Soro.Mrutyunjay Jena has been nominated by the Congress from Soro Assembly seat. He was serving in the Fire department as an AFO before he started his political career.Similarly, Jiban Pradip Dash after taking voluntary retirement from IAF entered into politics as a BJP man and proved to be very successful. After winning in 2004 polls on a BJP ticket, he switched over to the BJD in 2009 and obtained a ticket. In the last elections, while he had won for the second time, this time he also has been fielded as a candidate by the BJD from his Sadar Assembly constituency.