The year 2009 witnessed three senior leaders Prafulla Chandra Gadhai, Kalindi Behera and Kalpataru Das successfully securing the political future of their sons in the party by ensuring tickets for them. Prafulla Ghadai’s son Prit***jan Ghadai and Kalindi Behera’s son Chandrasarathi Behera entered the Assembly, alongside their fathers from new constituencies while Mr Das vacated his Dharmasala Assembly seat for son Pranab Balabantaray.Senior BJD leader and former Odisha steel and mines minister Padmanabh Behera’s wife Bishnupriya Behera had also blessings of Naveen Patnaik.

It all started in 2000 when Naveen Patnaik, then Union minister resigned from the Atal Behari Vajpayee government to lead the state as chief minister. She represented Balangir in the 12th, 13th, and 14th Lok Sabha.Apart from turning out to be the launching pad, the regional party has also become the most fertile platform for the friends and relatives of the senior leaders to grow in their career.Besides rehabilitating party leaders’ family members, Naveen Patnaik in the last 20 years, has successfully wooed sons and daughters of leaders who were once opposed to his party.The chief minister also accommodated Rajanikant Singh, son of party leader Adwaita Prasad Singh, in the party and got him elected to the Assembly from Angul. She got party ticket in 2000 and became the child welfare minister of the state.Former deputy chief minister and senior Congress leader Basanta Kumar Biswal’s two sons — Ch***iib Biswal and Rajib Biswal — to some extent have managed to remain at the centre stage.After rehabilitating his son on the Dharmasala seat, Mr Das went to the Rajya Sabha. enior BJP leader V.

While the BJP and Congress fail to attract the family and friends of the senior politicians as the two parties struggle to do well in the electoral exercises.In 2014, after the death of Hemendra Chandra Singh, the BJD MP from Nayagarh, Naveen Patnaik gave ticket to the latter’s wife Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh and ensured her victory by a massive campaign.Very recently, Naveen Patnaik attracted to his party his bitter critic Soumyaranjan Patnaik, son-in-law of former chief minister J.Sources in the BJD said that a few more leaders of the party are planning to field their sons in the 2019 electoral battle. In the same year also, Naveen Patnaik gave ticket to Bijaya Laxmi Patnaik, widow of former MLA and Biju Patnaik’s son Aruna Kumar Patnaik to contest from Khandapara. Pranab Prakash Das, son of Ashok Das, went on to become one of its most powerful leaders. Singhdeo’s wife Sangeeta Kumari Singhdeo was also promoted in the BJP.Former chief minister and Congress leader Nandiini Satpathy’s son Tathagat Satpathy has remained with the party since its birth in 1997. Similarly, he nominated Jyotiprakash Panigrahi, son China Wholesale Party Tent Manufacturers of his colleague Parsuram Panigrahi, to contest from Simulia seat in Balasore district.Communist leader Nityananda Pradhan and his daughter Renubala Pradhan were enrolled into the BJD and sent to the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Ms Behera won the seat by defeating Sitkanta Mishra of the Congress..B. He nominated party’s senior leader Ramakrushna Patnaik’s wife Kumuduni Patnaik to contest from the Aska Lok Sabha constituency vacated by him. Patnaik of the Congress.In 2002, the BJD chief nominated Mandakini Behera, wife of his cabinet colleague Bhagabat Behera, to contest the Nayagarh Assembly by-election after the latter’s untimely death.