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Royalty gunning for a mandate in Orissa, Indian ishtyle

Royalty is on the streets. Doing what! Seeking a mandate from the very commoners it once ruled. And where is all this happening? In the eastern state of Orissa.

With barely a week to go for the assembly election, a bunch of blue-blooded aspirants is trying yet again to participate in the modern structure of governance.

Unlike in 1995, when about two dozen royal folks had entered the electoral fray, the number has dropped this time. But all three major parties in the fray, the Congress, the Biju Janata Dal, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, have nominated as many as they could rope in.

The BJD has the numerical edge, with five ex-rulers contesting on its 'Conch' symbol. The Congress comes next with three blue-blooded candidates, while the BJP only boasts of two. In the last assembly elections, the then JD led by Biju Patnaik had given tickets to 10 such candidates, the Congress fielded six, while the BJP had sponsored four.

In 1990 assembly elections, only a dozen royal candidates had entered the electoral fray. "This is a democracy with a distinct Indian flavour," said a political commentator here, who is watching the political development, pertaining to the one's endowed with blue blood. He admitted that this time around, there are a lesser number of candidates belonging to the royal bastion as compared to the last time.

Prominent among the candidates in the fray are the Congress nominee and deputy speaker in the state assembly BB Singh Mardaraj, scion of the Khandapara royal house, who is re-seeking the family fief. Apart from him, AU Singh Deo of BJD, is also seeking re election from his fiefdom of Bolangir. Singhdeo's relative Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo is seeking re election from the Patnagarh assembly seat as BJP nominee and BJD nominee from Khallikote assembly seat in southern Orissa, Sugyani Kumari Deo, locally known as Rani.

If these royal candidates and the parties backing them are hoping to capitalise on the remaining vestiges of the feudal spirit, indications are that their hope is not misplaced. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP fielded two royal candidates, BK Singh Deo from the Kalahandi and Sangeeta Singh Deo from the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat. Incidentally, both of them retained their seats.

In the last one decade, BJP is the party, which has mostly attracted the blue blood in its fold, than any other party. Keeping this factor in view, the BJP has exploited the potential to expand its base in western Orissa, where two important royal parivars of Kalahandi and Bolangir became the BJP favourites.

If somebody wants to see 'royalty factor' in electoral battle, he should visit Ganjam district in southern Orissa, where three erstwhile royal candidates are in the fray from Khallikote, Suruda and Chikiti assembly seats.

'The king is dead, long live the king' is very much alive over here. This election too will witness them (royals) wooing the voters. The Rani of Khallikote and senior BJD leader Sugyan Kumari deo is seeking re election from Khallikote constituency. While the Raja of Dharakote and former minister A N Singh Deo is trying his luck from Suruda for the fifth time. Last time, he also won from here on the BJP ticket. He is facing none other than Congress nominee Usharani Panda, the minister of state for health and family welfare.

Another scion of the royal family, Usha Devi, is seeking re-election from Chikiti, the constituency bordering Andhra Pradesh. She is contesting as a BJD candidate. Devi is challenging the Congress nominee and speaker of the state assembly, Chintamani Dyan Amantra, whom she had defeated in 1990 assembly elections. But last time in 1995 elections, Samantra won the seat.

Maharajas did command electoral clout during the lifetime of former chief minister RN Singh Deo, but of late, the voters of the state have tended to give the royal folks a cold shoulder. For the royalty factor, which dominated the state's electoral scenario till 1961, faded away to virtual non-existence by the 1977 general elections.

In the wake of the merger of the former princely states after independence, their erstwhile rulers were up in arms against the late Congress leader Dr Harekrureshna Mahtab, who had masterminded the merger. The disgruntled princelings got together to pose a political challenge to the Congress by forming the Gantantra Parishad, which bagged as many as 31 of the 140 assembly seats in the first ever general elections held in 1952.

At the vanguard of the Parishad, were former maharaja of Bolangir R N Singh Deo, and former maharaja of Kalahandi P K Singh Deo. The Parishad increased its tally to 52 in the 1957 elections, following which the Congress was forced to join hands with it in 1959 to form a coalition government.

This merger was preceded by the worst phase of political instability and horse trading ever witnessed in Orissa politics. The royal class, whose Parishad had by then metamorphosed into the Swatantra Party, continued to make and break governments. Thus in 1967, breakaway Congressmen opposed to Biju Patnaik, formed a state level party styled Jana Congress and fought the 1967 elections with an understanding with the Swatantra Party.

A coalition ministry of the two parties, headed by the late RN Singh Deo, subsequently assumed office. In 1971, it was Biju Patnaik's turn to join hands with Singh Deo. The Utkal Congress and the Swatantra Party, with the support of the Jharkhand Party, formed a coalition government led by the late Biswanath Das.

The large-scale defections from the ruling coalitions brought down the Das ministry, paving the way for the Congress to stage a comeback. This government, too, was however, short-lived. And, curious as it may appear, Patnaik and Singh Deo, joined hands with none other than Mahatab to form the Pragati Party via a merger of the Utkal Congress and the Swatantra Party.

In the 1974 elections, however, the two parties could only muster a total of 56 seats, and despite CPI support, failed to form a government. In the intervening years, the former princes, drastically weakened by the abolition of their privy purses, joined either the Congress or Patnaik's party. Their sway, particularly in strongholds like Bolangir and Kalahandi, were, however, decisively eroded.

It so happened that from 1977 onwards, blue blood became a virtually irrelevant factor for the ballot box. This, however, did not deter the scores of erstwhile princes from making yet another bid for democratic glory. Try and try until you succeed, seems to be their credo, it seems.

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