At a time when the Bill proposing reservation of one-third of Lok Sabha seats for women is pending in Parliament, Odisha has not only elected 33% women but also ensured that they represent a diverse section of society.
Seven of the total 21 MPs from Odisha are women. While five have won on the Biju Janata Dal ticket, two are from the BJP.
In the tiny group, the diversity is truly remarkable — a former IAS officer, a doctor, an engineer and a grassroots leader. An ex-royal and a housewife complete the list.
Ever since Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik announced in March that his party would field 33% women candidates, it was expected that their representation would go up.
Of the seven women candidates fielded by Mr. Patnaik, five emerged victorious while two of the three BJP candidates won.
Success on debut
Aparajita Sarangi, a former IAS officer with a past reputation of an able administrator, tasted success on her debut in politics. The ex-Odisha-cadre IAS officer, who last served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development, had joined the BJP in November 2018. Since her foray into politics, the BJP leader had been seen among the people and explaining her vision to them. Her perseverance paid off when she won the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, which had been a bastion of the ruling BJD.
From farmer’s family
Pramila Bisoyi has been in the news right from the time of her nomination as a BJD candidate from the Aska Lok Sabha seat. For the 68-year-old belonging to a family of farmers, politics was altogether a different world. But the Chief Minister reposed faith in her because of her involvement in the women’s self-help group movement for 18 years. Aska being a BJD bastion, her victory was never in doubt.
Chandrani Murmu, the 25-year-old tribal woman who won the Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat on a BJD ticket, has already registered her name in the record books for being the youngest member to be elected to the Lower House of Parliament. Ms. Murmu earned her B. Tech degree from a Bhubaneswar-based engineering college.
BJP leader Sangeeta Singh Deo, a member of the erstwhile Patnagarh royal estate, is not new to politics. She had won the Balangir Lok Sabha seat thrice earlier.
Rajashree Mallick was an associate professor in the pathology department of the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, Odisha’s premier government-run hospital, before joining politics. Ms. Mallick won from the coastal Jagatsinghpur parliamentary constituency on a BJD ticket. The other two BJD leaders who had a successful run in the 2019 general election are Sarmistha Sethi, who had taken voluntary retirement from the Odisha Financial Services, and Manjulata Mandal, a housewife. Ms. Sethi and Ms. Mandal have won from the Jajpur and Bhadrak constituencies respectively on BJD tickets.