In Malkangiri’s villages, resettled Hindu Bengalis firmly back BJP

Malkangiri: Almost 2,000 km away from Guwahati and 1,000 km from Kolkata, village after village in Maoist-hit Malkangiri district watched keenly as BJP president Amit Shah, in a rally in Nabarangpur, promised to pass the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, if his party was voted back to power.
These villages know all about resettlement; after all, they are home to the first Hindu Bengalis to be rehabilitated by the Centre from erstwhile East Pakistan as part of the 1958 Dandakaranya Project. They are also BJP’s most vocal vote bank in a state where it hopes to end two decades of Naveen Patnaik’s rule.

The ‘namashudra’ or SC Bengalis of Malkangiri number around 3.5 lakh; around 1.5 lakh are eligible voters. They live in 214 villages in the district and around 60 villages in Nabarangpur district. They play a key role in Chitrakonda (ST) and Malkangiri (ST) assembly seats and Nabarangpur (ST) Lok Sabha seat, which vote on April 11.

Even though they themselves cannot contest the tribal segments, they determine the outcome in Malkangiri assembly and Nabarangpur LS seats. With close ties to ‘settler communities’ in Bengal and Assam’s Barak Valley, they are part of the vast Hindu Bengali electorate that can determine BJP’s outcome in at least two of its ‘focus’ states – Bengal and Assam.

“We want a change in government in the state. Whatever benefits we have received have been from the Centre,” said Gouranga Karmakar, president of Malkangiri Bangali Samaj. “We have sent MLAs to the assembly but even today we are treated like outcasts by local government officials,” he said, adding that Malkangiri has the most Bengalis in Dandakaranya.

Lined with saffron flags, the settler villages are located on either side of NH326 that passes through Malkangiri town. Their official names are MV (Malkangiri Village) or MPV (Malkangiri Potteru Village) followed by a number. The settlers are spread over four blocks – Malkangiri, Chitrakonda, Kalimela and Podia. SCs form 22.6 per cent of the district’s population of around 6 lakh while STs make up 58 per cent.

Those who have done well have control over the economy of this ‘war zone’, famous for illegal ganja cultivation. They have built houses on the edge of the highway. Those who haven’t, live in the interiors in tin-roofed colonies. Their grievances are many but a mention of Balakot evokes a sharp response.

“We will vote for BJP because it can control Pakistan,” said Sanjay Mondal of MV18. His neighbour, an elderly man who said he came from Barishal in Bangladesh, nods. “We lost our bhite maati (land and property) in Pakistan,” said a third.

The settlers, who began life in the state in 1964 and 1970 with ‘refugee cards’ and 18 bigha land per family, have always been electorally powerful. They have sent three MLAs to the assembly – Nadiabasi Biswas (Ind), Arabinda Dhali (BJP) and Nimai Chandra Sarkar (Congress). After delimitation in 2008, the seat was converted from SC to ST, a fact that continues to anger Bengalis. “The state government resettled tribals from Chitrakonda to Malkangiri and declared the latter an ST seat,” said Karmakar.

In 2014, the LS seat was won by BJD’s Balabhadra Majhi, who defeated Congress’s Pradeep Majhi by 2,042 votes. The BJP’s Parasuram Majhi finished third. This time, Balabhadra is contesting on a BJP ticket and is expected to transfer votes to the saffron party.

Aware of the power of the settler vote and BJP’s popularity here, chief minister Naveen Patnaik, accompanied by former BJP MLA and settler leader Dhali, recently urged the Bengalis to vote for BJD. “We have campaigned among the settlers but it is clear which way their vote will go. In the tribal areas, our party will do well,” said district Congress president Ram Prasad Patnaik, adding that the settlers were known to vote in a block.

“Our life is hard but we will vote. Everyone in my family will vote for one party. I can’t tell you which one,” said Parbati Mondal of MV18, who arrived in Odisha in the 60s.