Pradhani: The fire still burns. A Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 14: While India?s 70-plus politicians remain firmly rooted in the politics of power and elections, a tribal politician in Orissa?s Navrangpur district is content growing rice and sugarcane in his field.

For over three decades, 82-year-old Khagapati Pradhani ? a nine-time Congress MP from Navrangpur ? rubbed shoulders with the powers that be in the state.

Unlike other politicians of the times, who refuse to give up their privileges and vacate their quarters, Pradhani has chosen to live the life of a humble farmer.

Every day, he wakes up around 4 am and leaves for his field in Mengara village. ?I had more then 150 acres of parental cultivable land but I voluntarily declared them all. Now, I have about 60 acres where I grow paddy and sugarcane. The government distributed the rest under the land ceiling system,? Pradhani told The Telegraph.

Pradhani?s first brush with politics was in 1963 when he was elected chairman of the local village council. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1967. The last time he won a parliamentary election was in 1998.

The following year, Pradhani chose not to contest the elections citing domestic problems. Though the Congress leadership tried hard to make him the Navrangpur candidate one more time, Pradhani said he should make way for young politicians.

Born in 1922 in Mengara village of then undivided Koraput district, Pradhani has always been loyal to his party. ?I could never think of shifting my loyalty,? he said.

However, for a man who gave his all to the party and interacted frequently with Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Pradhani surprisingly has few supporters in the Congress these days.

This year, the Congress mouthpiece in Orissa raised questions on Pradhani?s importance in the party. ?Can persons like Girdhar Gomango and Khagapati Pradhani, who have not lost a single election, be called leaders of the AICC?? the mouthpiece asked.

The Congress old-timer chooses to stay away from such criticisms and the welfare of his district is uppermost on his mind. ?I have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi about the problems of my district,? he said.

The days of electoral politics may have been over, but Pradhani knows that he is still a politician at heart. ?I have not given up politics. I am a politician and will remain a politician,? he signed off.