The people of Rairangpur sub-division in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district are happy as another daughter of the soil has made it to the national news headlines about a month after Droupadi Murmu became the first tribal constitutional head of the country.
The people are happy at the possibility of Kalpana Soren, wife of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, could succeed him in case he is dismissed because of a mining lease extension case against him.
Kalpana Soren hails from Tentala village of Bahalda block.
She is the eldest daughter of a retired defense personnel, had her schooling at the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Baripada, the district headquarter town of Mayurbhanj.
She had got her B Tech degree from an institute in Bhubaneswar and then an MBA degree, her uncle Jagannath Murmu said.
I am happy as well as unhappy. I am sad because my son-in-law Hemant Soren is facing political turmoil. I am happy at the same time that my daughter Kalpana is reportedly tipped to become the state's next chief minister, Kalpana Soren's father Ampa Murmu said.
We are in a situation where both sides of the coin are in our favour. Whatever happens, the victory is ours, the father said.
Jagannath Murmu said that the people of Mayurbhanj and Rairangpur are happy as the entire country is now discussing the probable political elevation of a daughter of the soil.
The election of Droupadi Murmu had made us happy. Now, if our daughter Kalpana becomes the chief minister of Jharkhand, where Droupadi Murmu had once been the governor, it will be a double bonanza for us, he said.
The marriage of Hemant and Kalpana Soren was solemnised according to Santhal rituals here on February 7, 2006.
Several Santhal people and I had danced at the wedding. The then union minister and JMM chief Sibu Soren, Hemant's father, had also attended the marriage, Jagannath Murmu recalled.
Kalpana Soren's father now stays at his own house at Murgabadi in Baripada town.
Rabindra Nath Patnaik, who is on the managing committee of Aurobindo Integral School at Rairangpur town where Droupadi Murmu once taught, said the speculations of Kalpana Soren assuming the Jharkhand chief minister's office is certainly good news for all in the area as this nondescript tribal dominated sub-division has hit the national headlines once again.
Sujata Murmu, a former Mayurbhanj zilla parishad president who attended the swearing-in of Droupadi Murmu in the Central Hall of Parliament, said that if Kalpana Soren becomes the chief minister of Jharkhand it will further boost the morale of tribal girls and women in that state as well as in Odisha.