Can Dilip Tirkey emerge as 'special one' in Odisha election?

Dilip, the first from Odisha to play for India seniors in 1995, made it big globally.

In the BJP- BJD Lok Sabha face-off of Odisha – mostly 3 prestigious seats are talked about – Bhubaneswar, Puri and Cuttack. This is mainly because BJP heavyweights like Dharmendra Pradhan and Sambit Patra are cutting their teeth there.

However, there is another high-profile contest lined up in the tribal heavy Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat. A BJP bastion since 2014, their trigger man and current candidate Jual Oram has earlier won five terms from here.

Iconic Hockey player and former India captain Dilip Tirkey steps into the Colosseum against Jual Oram.

The challenge here is two fold for Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik – will his trump card and poster boy Dilip Tirkey be able to rally around the Adivasis, Tribals, Christians, and hockey fans? Can a former hockey player with a squeaky clean image hope to emerge as a major power centre?

Hockey India president, former India captain and Rajya Sabha MP till 2018, Dilip Tirkey contested the Sundargarh seat in 2014 and lost to BJP’s Jual Oram. Ten years later, the star who helped put the tribal dominated area on the world hockey map is confident the result would be in his favour. He sees a link among voters who would not just back him but also Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik .

Dilip is known for his squeaky clean image. He campaigns by connecting with people in smaller gatherings and avoids the use of any bombastic language. In fact, both Dilip and Oram avoid attacking each other. His pitch is more geared towards providing a better life to the locals, many of whom have experienced poverty in their lifetime.

Dilip told Moneycontrol: “The CM has a vision that unless proper grassroot facilities to encourage sports are given to the young proper change cannot happen. In that direction the 3 key areas are: Sports infra (includes coaching and ground facilities), Events and Hostel facilities. And a lot of development has taken place in the last 10 years here in the areas of sports, education and health.”

Oram with his electoral pedigree is a formidable rival. From the BJP he has been an MP 5 times. He was also elected twice as an MLA.

He created history when he became the first Union Tribal Affairs Minister of India in 1999 under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Later, he held the same portfolio under Narendra Modi.

Dilip’s camp points out that Oram has not devoted much time to Sundargarh due to his other pre-occupations and that is where Dilip scores. They say the Odisha government has changed the image of the state by making it a sporting hub with high performance centres, state-of-the-art training facilities and hosting big tournaments.

Dilip, the first from Odisha to play for India seniors in 1995, made it big globally. Since then, Sundargarh district has given players like Lazarus Barla and Birender Lakra who have represented India at the World Cup and Olympics.

The world's largest hockey stadium, Birsa Munda Stadium, has been built in Rourkela and in 2023 the Men's Hockey World Cup matches were held there.

“All these facilities are meant for locals and young children. The government is investing in providing them with sports kits and smaller coaching centres at many rural places. In fact, the administration at the block level is involved in tracking these developments with the sports department reporting to them,” says Dilip.

To further promote hockey in remote areas, 17 astro turfs were installed in 17 blocks of different districts. Besides, many centres have also been built for indoor sports.

Can players be successful politicians? Dilip believes he can crack the code with hard work and discipline. Patience, he feels, is another virtue. His experience as a Rajya Sabha MP would also be very useful to him now, he said.

Let’s take a look at some numbers. The Sundargarh seat comprises 7 Assembly segments including Talsara, Sundargarh, Biramitrapur, Raghunathpali, Rourkela, Rajgangapur, Bonai. The constituency is a ST seat. The BJP, the BJD are the main parties in the constituency.

A look at the caste equation reveals: ST -50.7%, Christian – 18.39%, SC – 9.2%, and Muslim – 5.3% are the dominating figures among others. Literacy rate is over 64%.

What is interesting to remember is in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections the BJP had a vote share of 46% compared to BJD with 25.5%. Besides, among the 7 assembly seats, BJP held 3, BJD 2 and Cong and CPM 1 each.

In that context, Dilip’s camp would have to rally hard to improve its vote share and create better feeder service from its cadre base to support the MP’s candidature.

Before Pandian arrived on the scene as the knight in shining armour, for want of a better phrase, Dilip Tirkey was widely considered as one of the chosen one to be groomed by Naveen Patnaik as a possible successor. Fact that Dilip is quiet, self-effacing, and shy can both be a plus or a minus depending on how one evaluates the prospect.

His loyalty to the CM is unwavering. And that is a huge blue tick in Dilip’s favour. Having said that he needs to badly win this seat to emerge as a key figure in the CM’s Eleven.

This is not the time to stay low and slow. This is the time to shout out loud, and score.