The sudden demise of Rajendra Dholakia, the sitting Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA from Nuapada, on 8 September due to complications following a heart transplant, has triggered a high-stakes bypoll in the constituency. Known not just as a politician but as a philanthropist, Dholakia had earned immense goodwill among the locals, making his seat a key political battleground.

Initially, the BJD was set to field his son, Jay Dholakia, banking on the family legacy to retain the seat. However, political calculations were upended when Jay Dholakia switched allegiance to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which assumed power in Odisha in 2024. The BJD, left scrambling, finally nominated former minister and Attabira MLA Snehangini Chhuria as its candidate for the bypoll.

Meanwhile, the Congress party, striving to revive its fortunes in the state, has fielded tribal leader Ghasiram Majhi – Dholakia’s principal rival in the 2024 assembly elections. That contest saw Majhi finishing second with 50,941 votes, behind Rajendra Dholakia’s 61,822 votes, while Congress heavyweight Sarat Pattanayak, who contested after denying Majhi a ticket, finished fourth. BJP’s Abhinandan Panda, son of former state BJP president Basanta Panda, was third with 44,814 votes.

On paper, Majhi appears to have a strong advantage. Jay Dholakia, despite his legacy, faces limitations in leveraging his father’s name due to his party switch, while Chhuria remains largely unfamiliar to the Nuapada electorate. Yet, electoral outcomes are rarely determined by candidate credentials alone. Ground-level organisation, party resources, and pre-election manoeuvres often tip the scales.

Speculations abound in Nuapada. Some analysts suggest that the BJD may have deliberately allowed Jay Dholakia to defect, indicating tacit coordination between the two parties. Others speculate that BJP influence and pressure played a role, given the Dholakia family’s extensive business interests.

The stakes are high for both major parties. A BJD loss would signal declining influence, despite Naveen Patnaik’s enduring popularity. For the BJP, a defeat would mark a significant setback, as ruling parties typically do not lose bypolls, especially when seeking to consolidate power. Meanwhile, Congress could gain a morale-boosting victory, reviving its organization and positioning itself as a credible alternative in Odisha politics.

As Nuapada braces for a tense electoral battle, the bypoll promises to be more than a local contest – it could reshape political narratives across Odisha.

The post Nuapada Bypolls: Political Chessboard Heats Up After Rajendra Dholakia’s Untimely Demise appeared first on Odisha Connect.

The Gandhamardan hills are spread over around 190 square kilometres across Odisha’s Bargarh and Balangir districts. Two religious and tourist places – Nrusinghanath Temple and Harishankar Temple – are on the Bargarh and Balangir sides of the hills. To the local people, both the temples and the entire hills are sacred entities.

The dense forests in the hills are also a major livelihood support for thousands of people. The hills are full of flora and fauna, and known to store rare medicinal plants. But they also have abundant reserves of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium, among other things.

In the early 1980s, when the government allowed the Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (Balco), a government-owned company, to start mining the Gandhamardan, it triggered a huge people’s protest. The protests continued throughout the 1980s, until Balco gave up its mining plans.

The protest to protect the biodiversity of the Gandhamardan hills was known to all as the ‘Balco movement’. In the history of people’s struggles, the Balco movement is claimed to be India’s first successful grassroots movement against a major mining project.

Gandhamardan Hill Bauxite Reserves and Renewed Mining Controversies

However, now, after three decades, there seems to be renewed interest in mining in the bauxite-rich hills, after the recent purchase of land by a corporate group. The Mahanadi Mines and Minerals Limited, a subsidiary of the Adani Group, has purchased around 112 acres of land in several villages across both the districts, sparking suspicions that the corporate group might have plans for bauxite extraction from the Gandhamardan hills.

The purchase has stoked local protests. On November 23, people in Temrimal village on the foothills of the Gandhamardan in Bargarh detained two geologists from the government-run Mineral Exploration and Consultancy Limited when they went for a survey in the hills.

Since November 25, local residents have launched an indefinite demonstration in front of the tehsil office at Khaprakhol in Balangir under the banner of the Gandhamardan Yuba Surakshya Parishad (GYSP).

Government Denials

Bargarh Lok Sabha MP Pradeep Purohit dismisses the alleged mining plans as a rumour. Purohit, who cut his political teeth on the Balco movement, avers that he will never allow mining in the Gandhamardan.

In a statement, the Adani Group also said that its subsidiary MMML had purchased private land from willing landowners with the purpose of transferring it to the Odisha forest department for compensatory afforestation.

Seeking to allay the mining fear, Odisha Deputy Chief Minister K.V. Singh Deo said in the Odisha assembly that the BJP government would never destroy the Gandhamardan hills for bauxite. He blamed the previous Biju Janata Dal (BJD) for allegedly giving Adani Group the permission to purchase land for compensatory afforestation. The company supposedly purchased the land in Balangir district in lieu of the loss of forest cover caused by its coal mining project in Sundargarh district.

Present Protests and Distrust

Even so, the clarifications by the state government and ruling politicians do not seem to have convinced the local people. Villagers around the Gandhamardan wonder why a company would acquire land in a densely forested area for afforestation. According to former Sambalpur Lok Sabha MP Bhabani Shankar Hota, who was at the forefront of the movement against Balco in the 1980s, the deputy chief minister’s statement only compounds the suspicion of people on Adani’s mining plans.

While the Adani subsidiary has so far purchased only private land, he says, the minister’s reply on government permission – whether from the previous or present – may hint that it might also have got permission for acquiring government land, which is beyond public knowledge till now. 

Hota and many others involved in the Balco movement suspect that the recent development at the Gandhamardan hills is a way to test people’s strength to resist a project again, more than three decades since the Balco movement.

History of Resistance

The people of Gandhamardan have a history of resistance to mining plans, and there is a valid reason for it. The hills have a rich biodiversity with more than 1,200 plant varieties, around 500 of which are medicinal, according to the local people. At least 220 of those medicinal plants have already been recorded in a report of the Botanical Survey of India. Thousands of people, mostly tribals, owe their livelihood to the hills.

The villages around the hills are known to have several traditional practitioners of ayurvedic medicine. There are two ayurvedic colleges and hospitals on the Bargarh and Balangir sides of the Gandhamardan, with more than 50,000 people depending on them.

In 1983, when Balco began its construction work after being granted a lease to extract bauxite in the Gandhamardan hills, the local people were the first to raise the banner of protest. In 1985, the GYSP was formed and it spearheaded a movement against mining that continued for the next four years.

The movement attracted several leaders and activists from across the state. Leaders like socialist thinker Kishan Patnaik and Hota played an important role in taking the movement to the national level. Noted environmentalist Sundarlal Bahuguna of Chipko movement fame spent days in the villages around the Gandhamardan to enthuse the local protesters.

Academicians from metro cities like Delhi launched a signature campaign to stop mining in the Gandhamardan. Though the Congress was in power both in Odisha and at the Centre, many local Congress leaders openly opposed mining the hills for bauxite.

Finally, due to sustained protests, the government backtracked from Balco’s mining project, though the company had already constructed roads, rail tracks and colonies for workers. The movement produced many future leaders out of young activists, including Purohit. 

Challenges of Balancing Development and Conservation

However, the topic of mining in the hills kept coming up time and again. It is obvious because, according to a survey by the government run Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited in 1980, the hills have a total reserve of 104.78 million tonnes of bauxite, as compared to around 72 million in the Niyamgiri hills, spread across the Kalahandi and Rayagada districts. Odisha has the largest bauxite reserves in India.

In 1990, after Biju Patnaik became the chief minister by defeating the Congress government, he again raised the issue of mining in the Gandhamardan but abandoned the idea after facing protests. Five years later, J.B. Patnaik returned to power in the state, and it was speculated that the Continental Resources Ltd, a Canadian company, might be invited to extract bauxite from the Gandhamardan.

By that time, the government had initiated a policy of inviting private corporate companies for mining. However, the Balco movement had created enough awareness among people to thwart any mining move.

Renewed Mining Proposals and Persistent Resistance

The present suspicion about fresh mining plans has put the activists on high alert. Meetings are being held in villages. Women are taking an active part in organising people.  

GYSP activists have made it clear that they do not trust the government’s “afforestation” clarification. They say that their protests will continue till a “sankalpa patra” (pledge) is passed in the Odisha assembly to ban mining in the Gandhamardan completely, as the government had already declared the hills a Biodiversity Heritage Site in March 2023.

Two factors had made the Balco movement of the 1980s a success: Religion and regionalism. The sanctity of Nrusinghanath and Harishankar temples was a major magnet that attracted people of all classes to the movement. Besides, there was disillusionment among the people in western Odisha that the state government was exploiting the western parts to benefit the coastal people.

Both factors remain more or less the same. However, time and government policies on dealing with people’s movements have changed. Many Balco movement activists, who have grown older, feel the governments have become less democratic and more aggressive while pushing for mining or infrastructure projects.

The present controversy around mining will have a bearing on Purohit. Once a convener of the GYSP, he owes his political career to the Balco movement. Interestingly, in August 2024, Pradeep Purohit had, in the Lok Sabha, demanded a survey of medicinal plants on the Gandhamardan hills.

The controversy is also a test for the BJP, which rules Odisha — how it allays the mining fear and balances development with conservation of rich biodiversity and sacred places with immense tourism potential.

The post Three Decades After BALCO, Mining Stalks Bauxite-Rich Gandhamardan appeared first on Odisha Connect.

As long as there are schools like Lady Lewis Girls’ High School, there is hope that someone from the bottom will make it to the top.

On 29th June, I visited Lady Lewis Girls’ High School, the oldest girls’ school in Sambalpur and one of the oldest schools in Odisha, after a long time along with friends Siba Nanda and Abodhram Purohit. 

The purpose of our visit was to meet three bright students of the school Laxmipriya Rout, Manasi Urmi and Bhumija Gahir who passed the Class 10 exam this year with flying colours. We wanted to praise and encourage them for their efforts.

Laxmipriya has an A1 (above 90% mark) while Manasi and Bhumija have secured A2 (above 80%). But their efforts go beyond marks. What’s important is the resilience of these students.

All the three come from underprivileged backgrounds like most of the students of Lady Lewis. Their parents do odd and irregular jobs to maintain their families. The girls have come up so far due to their interest in studies, sheer hard work and guidance from their teachers. If they have scored over 80% or 90% under adverse circumstances, it’s far better a result than anyone from an expensive private school scoring 100%. They have jumped as high as or higher than their counterparts in privileged private schools despite jumping from the lowest platforms.

Another myth needs to be broken here. Many people often say that X or Y private school gets better results though having teachers paid much less than government school teachers. But the advantage of such a private school is that they admit better students, mostly from privileged classes, after an entrance exam. A government school like Lady Lewis has no such liberties. It doesn’t deny admission to anyone, from any social strata.

It’s in fact goes to the credit of the teachers from Lady Lewis that they try their best to impart education to the most underprivileged students. It’s quite outstanding that 224 out of 225 students cleared the board exam this year.

I’ve the fortune of knowing many of the teachers of Lady Lewis who have not only guided meritorious students from poorer backgrounds but also helped them financially to make the girls’ struggle easier.

Kudos to such sensitive and inspiring teachers. As long as there are schools like Lady Lewis Girls’ High School, there is hope that someone from the bottom will make it to the top.

The post IN LADY LEWIS, THERE’S HOPE  appeared first on Odisha Connect.

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik is a candidate for Kantabanji Assembly seat under Balangir Lok Sabha constituency. His second in command in the Biju Janata Dal Pranab Prakash Das is a candidate for Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency.

Das is being challenged by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Sambalpur while Union home minister Amit Saha has fired his first salvo against the BJD from Sonepur, which comes under Balangir Lok Sabha constituency but also adjacent to Sambalpur and Bargarh Lok Sabha constituencies.

Why both the Bharatiya Janata Party and BJD have sharp focus on western Odisha this time? The reason is not far to seek.

After 2009, when Patnaik snapped all ties with the BJP, the latter won fewer seats but was the main challenger of the BJD in western Odisha.

 

The BJP has a traditional vote base in western Odisha. When a coalition of the BJD and BJP rode to power in Odisha defeating the Congress, the western parts of the state sent most of the BJP’s MLAs to the Assembly. After 2009, when Patnaik snapped all ties with the BJP, the latter won fewer seats but was the main challenger of the BJD in western Odisha.

In 2019 elections, Patnaik contested in Bijepur Assembly segment under Bargarh Lok Sabha seat to broaden the BJD’s organisation in the region. It helped the BJD to win more Assembly seats but the BJP, backed by Pulwama narrative, managed to win all the five Lok Sabha seats of western Odisha – Kalahandi, Balangir, Bargarh, Sambalpur and Sundargarh. Besides, it also won three more Lok Sabha seats including Bhubaneswar, Balasore and Mayurbhanj.

In the 2024 elections, the BJP desperately wants a much better haul than eight Lok Sabha seats considering its ambitious target of 400+ seats throughout India. By kicking off the party’s campaign in Odisha from Sonepur, Shah has signaled the party cadres to win all western Odisha Lok Sabha seats at any cost. 

On the other hand, the BJD also wants to scuttle the BJP’s action plan for western Odisha and broaden its base in the region further. In fact, the regional party had tried its western Odisha experiment in 2019 elections by fielding Patnaik from Bijepur Assembly seat in Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency. It partially worked as it got a bigger haul of Assembly seats. However, the BJP’s Pulwama narrative deprived it of all the Lok Sabha seats.

This time around, a strong national narrative is not visible and the BJD is stressing on “Double Sankha” narrative.

This time around, a strong national narrative is not visible and the BJD is stressing on “Double Sankha” narrative meaning one vote for Assembly and one for Lok Sabha. Though it did not win a single Lok Sabha seat in 2019, the BJD’s experiment helped the party make strong inroads into western Odisha. This time around, as both the party zero in on the region – the BJP trying to protect its traditional base and the BJD spreading its organization further – the electoral battle promises to be very intense.

Author : Priya Ranjan Sahu

The post BJD-BJP battle for supremacy in western Odisha appeared first on Odisha Connect.

The train accident at Bahanaga Bazar of Baleswar is one of the worst train disasters in India. It is also the worst accident in the last two decades.

The train accident involving two passenger trains and goods train near Bahanaga Bazar station in Odisha’s Balasore district on the evening of 2 June 2023 has claimed at least 275 lives so far and left 900 people injured, many of them seriously.

The accident occurred around 6.55 pm when the Coromandel Express going from Shalimar station in West Bengal to Chennai got derailed and collided with a goods train standing at the Bahanaga Bazar station. As a result, the goods train crashed with the Howrah Superfast Express going from Yesvantpur station in Bengaluru to Howrah.    

The train accident at Bahanaga Bazar of Baleswar is one of the worst train disasters in India. It is also the worst accident in the last two decades. Here are India’s other 10 most significant train accidents.

10 Worst Train Accidents

1. The worst train accident in India claiming over 600 lives occurred on 6 June 1981 on the track between Mansi and Saharsa in Bihar after seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fell into the Bagmati river. Rescue operation stopped after the recovery of 250 bodies.

2. On 20 August 1995, the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Purushottam Express collided with the Kalindi Express near Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh killing at least 358 people.

3. At least 290 passengers were killed on 2 August 1999 after the Avadh Assam Express from New Delhi and the Brahmaputra Mail from Dibrugarh collided at Gaisal station in Assam. Many Indian Army personnel going to be posted at the border were among those killed.

4. On 26 November 1998, around 212 passengers were killed after the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express collided with six derailed coaches of the Frontier Golden Temple Mail near Khanna in Punjab. The accident occurred after the Frontier Golden Temple Mail got derailed and its coaches crashed into the Jammu Tawi-Sealdah Express running on the adjoining track.

5. Around 170 passengers lost their lives after the Howrah Kurla Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express got derailed between Khemashuli and Sardiha in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal and then hit goods train on the adjoining track on 28 May 2010. The police alleged that the accident was due to sabotage by the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), which never claimed responsibility.

6. On 23 December 1964 cyclone caused the Pamban-Dhanuskodi passenger train to wash away along with the track. At least 150 passengers lost their lives as a result.

7.  The derailment of the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express near Rafiganj station in Bihar on 9 September 2002 following heavy rain left 140 passengers dead.

8. On 28 September 1954, at least 139 people were killed after a train plunged into the Yasanti river in Andhra Pradesh.

9. On 2 September 1956, at least 125 people were killed after the collapse of a bridge caused a train accident near Mahabubnagar in Telangana.

10.  In the worst train accident in the pre-Independence era, on 17 July 1937 at least 119 passengers were killed when an express train from Kolkata (then Calcutta) fell into a water body near Bihta station in Bihar.

This article is written by Priya Ranjan Sahu

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