It was a stark change for Santrupt Misra, who voluntarily left his senior corporate job to pursue a political career.
The business attire of a suit and shoes has been replaced by a kurta, pajama, sleeveless jacket and chappal. He is no longer surrounded by business executives, board members and consultants. Instead, political activists and those looking to profit from his political journey flocked to his residence in Cuttack, far from his cozy home in Mumbai.
Misra, 58, joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the ruling party in Odisha, earlier this year “to serve the people of my home state”. He is the BJD candidate from Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency, which will go to polls on May 25.
Mr Misra, who grew up in Odisha, was the CEO of Birla Carbon; Director of Chemistry; and Group Human Resources Director, Aditya Birla Group.
A close confidant of Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, Mr Misra had declared assets worth ₹461 crore in his nomination statement. Its annual income in the financial year 2022-23 was over ₹ 66 crore.
Mr. Mishra said This Hindu that he could continue to earn money for himself, but he was faced with several questions about the purpose of life and what would give him the greatest satisfaction.
“I wanted to make a greater contribution beyond being confined to one organization, but to work with a more diverse group of people who are very different from what I saw in the corporate world,” he said.
“I also recognized that in my home state, I could apply decades of corporate diversity science to kind of make a huge difference in people’s lives,” he said.
On why he chose BJD, Misra said: “For three reasons. Naveen Patnaik, the leader of the party, is the person of change. Remains impartial and development-oriented. He also remains focused on the practice of being something of a civilized gentleman,” he said.
“Secondly, the BJD, which is a regional party, focused only on the state and did not concern itself with anything other than the development of the state’s citizens. Other national parties focused on other countries. It was different.”
“And finally I discovered that the Biju Janata Dal was very focused on people’s development and people’s policy development. There were three reasons,” he added.
Mr. Misra wants to operate his experience in problem solving, resource utilization, resource mobilization, teamwork, conflict resolution, vision creation and long-term planning for the State’s development. “Every one of them has an application somewhere at the end. And I’ve only experienced part of it when I operate it.
“So I see that a huge transformation of corporate life into public life is possible,” he said.
It was the party’s decision to withdraw from Cuttack but Mr. Misra is joyful. “Cuttack is very aged [over 1,000 years old]. It has a lot of luxurious culture and heritage. Even Subhash Chandra Bose was born here. This is the city where I grew up. My twenty years of work at school and university, where I learned everything I know. I could get a chance [to represent] this is a huge thing for me,” he added.
Mr Misra will face the BJP’s Bhartruhari Mahtab. Six-time Member of Parliament Mahtab was earlier a member of the BJD.
“When it comes to competition, opposition candidates, I think I don’t attach much importance to it because my job is to carry my party’s results, my party’s message, leadership, my personal message to the people and I think all these messages are so powerful , and their combined effect is so powerful that it will be very attractive to voters,” he said.
“I am sure voters will ask candidates and parties about their performance in recent years. They saw BJD performances,” he added.
For over a month now, Mr Misra has been traveling extensively around his constituency in sweltering heat. “People are very welcoming. They want to know more about me,” he said.
“They are joyful to meet me. They openly share their feelings and thoughts with me. They’re sharing what opportunities we have to improve and grow our constituency, and I think they obviously want to hear my vision and so on, and it’s been a very productive conversation and engagement with all of them,” he added.
