Chatrapur, Oct 30: The Communist Party of India (CPI) has lost its ground in its home turf Chatrapur Assembly constituency in Ganjam district of Odisha. The party candidates have won the seat eight times since formation of the constituency in 1951.
Party candidate Lakshman Mahapatra represented the seat three times in 1961, 1967 and 1971 and Biswanath Sahu won in 1977 and 1980. Later, the party candidates represented the seat in 1990, 2004 and 2009.
The party had acquired 62.56 percent vote in 1990 that reduced to 8.59 percent in 2019.
The party failed to revive after murder of Chatrapur block chairman and senior CPI leader N Simanchal Reddy in 2009 and youth leader Sakura Behera before 2014 general election. No new leaders emerged in the constituency after brutal killing of the two party cadres and BJD captured the constituency in 2014 and 2019.
CPI leader from Khallikote Pradeep Kumar Sethy unsuccessfylly contested Chatrapur seat in 2019 getting only 12,000 votes.
The lone leader of the constituency former CPI MLA Nagireddi Narayan Reddy is serving life imprisonment in connection with the death of a police inspector during a clash in June 1998 over land acquisition for a steel plant by Tata Steel.
