'Politics just a medium to serve nation': 'Odisha's Modi' Pratap Chandra Sarangi humble as ever after becoming MoS

Hailed by many commentators as ‘Odisha’s Modi’, he is hailed for being accessible, frugal and from a humble background.

He is also knowns for his straight talk and calling a spade a spade. A fluent orator in both Odia and Sanskrit, the RSS follower is known for riding from village to village on a bicycle.

He lives in Nilagiri block of Balasore district and graduated from Fakir Mohan College in Balasore. He chose the life of an ascetic in Ramkrishna Math and did social work in his region. Sarangi returned to his village as a clerk in Nilagari college but quit after he began his association with RSS and VHP.

He won in 2004 as an MLA from Nilagiri on a BJP ticket and then as an independent in 2009. In 2014, he lost to Rabindra Jena of BJP from the Balasore Lok Sabha constituency.

He has also been credited for opening schools in tribal areas and used to live with his mother till last year. He also spent most of his MLA pension to fund education for children.

In the 2019 polls, he swapped an autorickshaw for a cycle and despite having fewer resources beat two of the richest opponents. On the Congress side, he saw off the challenge of Nabajyoti Patnaik whose family owns one of Odisha’s biggest media houses.

On the BJD side was industrialist and current sitting MP Rabindra Kumar Sena who is also the proprietor of news channel News World Odisha.

But both of them lost out to Pratap Chandra Sarangi.