Pappanna in Koraput. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Koraput, April 18: Mutika Papanna isn’t just aiming at a victory in this Lok Sabha election.

As he steps out of his silver-white Qualis onto the desolate highway joining the hill town of Koraput and Jeypore, this former high court judge and BJD candidate for Koraput Lok Sabha seat announces, “Why should I wish to become just a minister? I aim to become the President of the country. If a Sikh and Tamilian can become President, then why not a tribal?”

However, the man who resigned from the high court last month for a stint in active politics, still hasn’t sloughed off his earlier identity. He breaks into the insufferable signature line “I am Justice Papanna,” little realizing that he is no longer the judge of Orissa High Court.

BJD workers complain he is more comfortable at the Koraput Bar Association which he visits everyday than he is in meeting people. “A minister’s post is small compared to a high court judge,” says, more evidence of his lingering affair with the courts. Papanna has a formidable opponent in Congress leader Giridhar Gamang, who has won the seat a record eight times.

“I have an eclectic background. I was a lecturer, social worker, magistrate, advocate, district judge and then HC judge. Now I have come to a place where I can render justice to the downtrodden people of Koraput,” says Papanna.

From a modest farming family in Gunupur block of Koraput district, Papanna has risen up the social ladder. He was once in Koraput jail for 18 months for speaking out against the Congress government. When he was released, he contested the Koraput Lok Sabha seat on a Janata Dal ticket and lost to Gamang in 1977 and then again in 1980.

The past, however, looms heavily on his prospects. Papanna grumbles if government officials don’t bow their heads and speak in a reverential manner to him. His demeanour does not warm him to the tribal populace.

“It’s my personality that sets me apart,” says the confident former judge, while he waves cursorily at a few tribesmen.

Everyone here is talking about the distance that Papanna maintains and not his personality. But fortunately for him, Gamang’s fortune is on a slide after his squabble with wife Hema for the Koraput ticket.

With Gamang’s wife Hema determined to cut into her husband's votebank, Papanna can surely afford to discuss his personality and not votes.