The ancestral house of President Droupadi Murmu in Uparbeda village under Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency of Odisha. (Photo: Ramani Ranjan Mohapatra)
Sitala Hansda’s face beamed with pride when he was asked about the route to Uparbeda, President Droupadi Murmu’s native village, in Odisha’s tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha (LS) constituency.
This seat, currently held by Bharatiya Janata Party MP and Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu, is a major stake in the general elections as the President’s bastion.
“Our Droupadi?” replied Hansda, a septuagenarian, as she showed the way to Murmu’s house. On July 25, Murmu, the first chief and second woman to hold the country’s highest constitutional post, will complete two years in office. “She is the pride of our community,” says Hansda’s son Parau.
There were media reports that Uparbeda, 120 km from the district headquarters in Baripada, received electricity only after Murmu became president. “They were just a few families who had recently moved to another place in the village. Electricity now lights up every house,” said Birbal Banam Soren, who lives nearby.
Deserving villagers have been given houses or money under government schemes, and tap water reaches every household. The road in the village was constructed when Murmu was Minister of State in 2002. “The repairs will begin soon,” said Paresh Chandra Giri, 81, as he sat with a group of villagers at a Shiv temple and discussed politics. “The temple work is almost complete. But there is a certain amount waiting to be paid out. We are being asked for a commission (bribe),” Giri said.
Villagers believe that progress has not been as substantial as it should have been in a presidential village. “It has been 25 years since the promise of an irrigation facility was made,” says Gobinda Soren.
For tribes outside the village, community issues are important.
Satya Narayan Majhi, a columnist and lecturer at a private engineering college in Karanjia, listed the long-standing demands, including the introduction of a Sarna Code of Religion for the official recognition of their religion, religious practices and customs, and the implementation of the Panchayats . Extension to Scheduled Areas) (PESA) Act 1996.
Mayurbhanj district, home to 58.72 percent tribal population, with ten major tribal groups, has nine constituencies spread over three LS seats that will go to polls on June 1.
In October 2023, Bangiriposi lawmaker and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) state minister Sudam Marndi, who is now contesting from the LS seat, came under fire when he defended the now-withdrawn state proposal to allow the Odisha (planned) area transfer of immovable easy to change. Property Regulations, 1956, which would have enabled the community people to sell or mortgage their lands to non-tribals in scheduled areas.
Last year, Murmu attended a Santali writers program organized to spread the Santali alphabet Ol Chiki in the district. “This shows her commitment to the community. We need more regular teachers of the language,” said Raimani Marndi, assistant professor of history at MPC Autonomous College in Baripada.
Many hope that the President will also explore the demand for inclusion of Mundari and Ho languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The Naveen Patnaik government has withdrawn more than 50,000 cases against tribals and opened residential schools for community students. In January, Patnaik’s cabinet approved a 100 percent state-funded minimum support price for tribal minor forest produce. In the interim budget, the state has allocated Rs 226 crore for the preservation of tribal culture and identity.
Lecturer Majhi highlighted concerns related to employment, land rights for permanent settlements and better rail connections. In November last year, Murmu stopped three trains at Badampahar railway station, each about 10 km from Uparbeda and her in-laws’ village in Pahadpur.
Last week, Patnaik campaigned for BJD candidates in the district and said his party was honoring the ‘daughter of the soil’ by supporting ‘sister’ Murmu’s presidential candidature.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the “daughter of Odisha is the pride of India today and all this is happening because of the power of your voice”. He will deliver a speech in Baripada on Wednesday.
Will Murmu’s elevation decide the outcome of the poll?
“There are local dynamics,” says Sandeep Sahu, journalist and author of Madam President, a biography of Murmu.
The BJP had won 49 of the 56 Zila Parishad seats in 2017 and captured the LS seat as well as five of the seven Assembly constituencies under this segment in 2019. However, she remained blank in the 2022 Panchayat polls.
BJD candidate Marndi, who represented the LS seat on the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket in 2009, is banking on state plans and the reorganized party strength.
The BJP has dropped Tudu and fielded Murmu’s confidant Naba Charan Majhi, the sitting lawmaker from Rairangpur, the seat Murmu represented for two terms until 2009.
Anjali Soren, the daughter of JMM founder Sibu Soren, who finished third in 2019, is the candidate from the INDIA block. “It would have been easy for the BJP if they had retained Tudu. Majhi has limited impact outside his constituency. But the tide might turn after the Prime Minister holds a meeting there,” Sahu said.
When asked who she would vote for, Hansda smiled before covering her face with the sari.
First print: May 28, 2024 | 12:07 pm IST