Cong, BJP political families bite the dust in Orissa

Congress heavyweight and former chief minister Giridhar Gamang received the biggest humiliation in his decades-long career. Not only Gamang but two of his family members and personal staff member lost the twin polls to their Biju Janata Dal (BJD) rivals.

While Gamang tasted the first defeat of his career in the Koraput LS constituency, his wife Hema, son Sisir and personal staff member Nagraj Dora were drubbed in the Laxmipur, Gunupur and Jaypore assembly seats respectively. All the three seats were assembly segments under the Gamang’s Koraput LS constituency.

Gamang was a member of the last LS. His wife Hema was a member of the last state assembly.

Like the Gamang family, two members of another prominent Congress family in the state (of former chief minister J B Patnaik) also failed to win in the recent elections.

Patnaik’s son-in-law media baron Soumya Ranjan Patnaik lost the assembly poll from Khandapara, while his brother Nirajan, a former state minister, was drubbed in the Ghasipura assembly constituency.

Similarly, the pro-BJD wave also saw two sons of late Congress heavyweight and former deputy chief minister Basanata Biswal, biting the dust in the twin polls. Ranjib Biswal and Chiranjib Biswal were trounced by their BJD rivals in the Kendrapara LS seat and the Jagatsinghpur assembly constituency respectively.

In the BJP, party heavyweight and former state minister Biswa Bhusan Harichandan and his brother Bibhuti Bhusan Harichand were beaten by their BJD rivals in the prestigious Bhubaneswar (Central) and Chilka assembly constituencies, respectively.