At the ward member level, individual factor is more important than the party votes. Therefore, political parties have not given much importance to the ward member posts. At the Sarpanch and the Samiti level, the importance of individual factor too stays. It depends on the region’s degree of politicisation.
But in the highly politicalised Assembly constituencies like the coastal areas, the Sarpanch and the Samiti election becomes more party oriented than individual- centric. There is a clear visibility of dissident candidates in these areas. Though these two posts are non-party posts, the candidates are using their respective party colour on the posters and the pushing cards. The colour-trick has been adopted by the parties to circumvent the election rules.
The situation indicates absence of non-partisan leadership at the grassroots. However, a good panchayat leader has a possibility to win
and the political parties have also tried to choose such leaders. But who has contacts with villages of the GPIJ It could be a cricket club
leader, a contractor, a dalal of Government schemes, a NGO staff, a dissident women SHG leader and so on. Are they good peopleIJ The escalated cost and complication of elections have kept away good candidates from GP level polls such a retired Government teacher, a non-party social worker or a GP famer leader and so on. Thus, a true independent Sarpanch candidate with the capacity and the noble intention to carry all the households of different political parties and with an intention to implement Government schemes through a true gram sabha, is a rare species.
There is value scarcity at grassroots and no institution is giving importance to develop cadres at grassroots with good governance and social cohesion values. Thus whether they it is an independent or a party nominated candidate, they make little difference to the people’s issue of corruption in scheme delivery and pilferage.
At the ZP member election level, winning the election as an independent candidate is more challenging. Here, the winning vote level is 15,000 or above. Unless a leader has a broad based contact with nearly 50 per cent of GPs or nearly 6,000 households of the constituent ZP zone, it is difficult to win as independent. During the 2012 ZP election, 22 independent candidates won from 851 ZP seats.
Seven independents, the maximum number, won from Sundergarh. But this success of independents is due to George Tirkey factor, the then independent MlA of the district. Can these independents be called true independents, who can have contacts with at least 6,000 householdsIJ In the past or present, most of the MlAs of the left parties were nothing but independent candidates, be it Narayan Reddy of Chhatrapur or Sabhu Nayak of Mayurbhanj. later Geroge Tirkey or Sudan Marandi emerged as independent leaders.
Only way to connect with multiple panchayats is public issue. Who is taking up public issue todayIJ Now an independent candidate can be a player or a contractor or a dissident. When these people come to system what is their value-coating so that they will be alternative to political party candidatesIJ However, there is scope for victory of independent ZP members in some places, not due to their personality but due to anti-voting of party candidates.
There is some interesting development in a few Assembly constituencies where the MlA aspirant independents have joined hands with the local opposition leader to defeat BJD. In Sukinda Assembly constituency of Jajpur district, some dissident BJD leaders have joined hands with the Congress to defeat the BJD ZP candidates, terming it as “Maha-menta or grand-alliance against BJD”. Pradip Bal Samta, who had contested 2014 Assembly election unsuccessfully with loss of deposit as dissident BJD, is leading this independent grouping .While they align with the Congress at ZP level, in some mine adjacent GPs, they have put their independent candidates. By planning to defeat the BJD ZP candidates, they might be planning to make themselves attractive to BJD for 2019 Assembly ticket. But this calculation will give benefit to BJD MlA Pritiranjan Ghadei in the long run. The existing BJD supporters will be more hostile towards them if the BJD candidates get defeated and they will block their future re-entry to BJD. Even if BJD loses in a few ZP seats, which is unlikely, the party has the opportunity to make up for the loss by 2019 Assembly poll as BJP is not present effectively in the constituency as a third force to inject further confusion.
Contesting as independent ZP candidates would have given the dissident group an opportunity to show their strength at ZP level to market them to all parties for 2019 Assembly poll. But they chose the Congress-alliance route. As the independents supported the Congress, their identity was lost. The success of these ZP candidates would be treated as the performance of the Congress and the official credit shall go to the Congress constituency leader, former Congress Minister Sarat Rout. As the huge constituency Congress votes are with Rout, the Congress ticket givers of 2019 Assembly poll would not like to make Rout a dissident and shall give ticket him or his siblings to consolidate Congress votes. So these independents cannot get a 2019 Congress MlA ticket from the top nor can Rout afford to sacrifice his Assembly ticket to the group. So this kind of independent and Congress alliance is worth watching in Sukinda.
As Sukinda is a cromite area, the area politics has to be always analysed from mining- benefit sharing angle. One has to watch, if this kind of anti-BJD grouping in PRI poll is done by some mining business houses of Kalinganagar and Kaliapani or this is done to further the mining business interest of the independents.
A similar model is seen working in Keonjhar district. Champua Independent MlA Sana Mahakuda is seen helping some independent candidates in some ZP constituencies of the district. There is also visibility of an alliance of these independent candidates with a faction of Congress in some zones. This is a new equation, emerging in Keonjhar. It is known that there is no good terms between the Keonjhar BJD stalwart Badri Patra and Sana Mahakuda . May be Mahakud wants to show his strength by checkmating the importance of Badribabu in the district. It is also a known fact that former Congress Minister Niranjan Patnaik is an arch-rival of Badribabu. Have both the enemies joined hands to counter BadribabuIJ In this situation, only time will tell whether Badribabu will try to be closer to former Congress Minister Jayadev Jena and Chamua leader Kusa Apat. Unless Mahakhud plays his card correctly, he will become the enemy of both camps, the BJD and the Congress. There is also a possibility of mining-business factor influencing PRI equation in the district, as Daitari and Barbil mines are located in the district.