Ramaa Majhi, 56, bused 32km from her village to Nuapada town so her two sons would not have to leave home and travel hundreds of miles to find work.
She attended Saturday’s road show by chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi in Nuapada, a backward Assembly constituency of 2.5 lakh voters in western Odisha where by-elections are scheduled for November 11.
The show drew a huge crowd and continued for three hours, but Ramaa was in a hurry to catch the bus back home.
A staunch supporter of BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, she now seems equally supportive of Majhi. All she wants is that the elected leaders end the cycle of grinding poverty and labour migration from this region bordering Chhattisgarh.
“I attended Naveen Babu’s rallies in the past and I still respect him. I was asked by our villagers to join Majhi’s rally and I came,” she said.
“I’m going back with the prayer that whoever wins the contest understands our problems. I don’t want my sons to leave our village every year in search of work.”
People across the constituency echoed the sentiment.
“Campaigning is over and the harvest season is about to close. Labour touts will be visiting our villages soon to recruit men and women to work in other states,” said Bhola Raut of Jandramunda.
“We are preparing to leave for Secunderabad next month to work as labourers.”
Bhalu Rout and wife Prabati Rout
The migration from Nuapada — mostly to southern states such as Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — begins around January when, with the harvesting over, the villagers are left without work.
Yet, the rival parties’ campaign speeches and poll promises hardly mention the migration. The only promise the chief minister made during his road show was to provide the local tribal population with the “basic facilities they were denied during the Naveen government’s 24 years”.
It’s not as though the parties are shy of cashing in on the region’s poverty. All kinds of lures are being offered, with promises of money for attending rallies and voting for a particular party or another.
All this remains hard to prove, though, with the would-be beneficiaries understandably reluctant to reveal names or details.
“Let me earn a few bucks during the election. We are poor. For us elections and the leaders’ speeches mean nothing,” a tribal villager said, declining to be identified.
“So, we don’t refuse whatever is offered. We have been promised some sort of assistance tonight.”
The BJP government has thrown all its resources into the campaign. Its party flags are everywhere, from Nuapada town to the villages. Large billboards carry pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi alongside those of Majhi, state BJP president Manmohan Samal and candidate Jay Dholakia.
Union minister and Odisha MP Dharmendra Pradhan’s photos are, however, missing — a sign that Majhi is eyeing this by-election as an opportunity to prove his own leadership credentials.
The contest is also a test of popularity for former chief minister Naveen, who has held two road shows for BJD candidate Snehangini Chhuria and enjoys wide sympathy.
“During the last 16 months of Majhi’s rule we have faced many problems — in particular, with obtaining urea-based fertiliser at the right time, which affected our farming,” Girish Agaria, 80, of Kureswara village said.
“I’m old now. The Biju Swasthya Kalyan health (insurance) card I received earlier was a big help, but now they are replacing it with the Ayushman Bharat card, which is not as effective.”
He has other grievances: “We were told we would be given a ₹3,500 pension, but we never got that.”
Dhobani Jali, who sells snacks at the village market every Saturday, is unhappy that the previous government’s Mission Shakti — cash incentives for women’s self-help grpups — has been replaced with the Subhadra scheme.
“Many women from our area have been denied facilities under the Subhadra scheme,” she said. “Besides, where’s the cheap electricity this government promised?”
Sangita Barik, who was at Majhi’s meeting, said: “We have a lot of respect for Naveen Babu. We do have a lot of issues here; we’ll decide later who to vote for.”
Some said their concerns about the 79-year-old Naveen’s age had prompted them to tilt towards the BJP.
“Naveen Babu has become old; who will look after us after him?” a young mechanic, Ramesh Yadav, said.
“It’s better to switch loyalties to the BJP. They have the government, and if we don’t support them now, we shall face difficulties.”
However, some within the BJP think that poaching Jay, son of late BJD lawmaker Rajendra Dholakia, and fielding him will not bring the advantage the party had hoped for.
“Those who have worked for the BJP for the last 30 years are unhappy at the decision. Their hearts are not in the campaign,” a local BJP leader said.
The Congress is banking on the popularity of its “son of the soil” tribal candidate Ghasiram Majhi. Instead of large rallies, the party is focused on targeted outreach, highlighting issues such as bonded labour, unemployment and tribal exploitation.
“While the BJP candidate is seen as a defector and the BJD candidate as an outsider relying on Naveen’s image, Ghasiram enjoys strong support from the Majhi community. He is the dark horse,” Congress veteran Srikant Jena, who was in Nuapada, said.
“Money plays a big role. The Congress lacks the resources to match (its rivals). We are banking entirely on (Ghasiram) Majhi’s image.”