By profession, octogenarian K. Shyam Babu Subudhi is a homeopathy practitioner. But come election time, he becomes the wannabe David challenging Goliaths — the list of luminaries Subudhi has taken on reads like a political who’s who: former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, former chief ministers Biju Patnaik and JB Patnaik and he has even fought against chief minister Naveen Patnaik in a general election.

Subudhi, 83, has contested elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Assembly 32 times but unlike the mythical David, never tasted success. He has lost his deposit but that has never dampened his spirit.

This time, he has filed nomination papers for two Lok Sabha seats — Aska, which votes on April 18, and Berhampur, which voted on April 11. At present the security deposit for contesting a Lok Sabha poll is Rs 25,000 for each seat.

Subudhi made his electoral debut in 1957 but he became a household name when he locked horns with then Prime Minister Narasimha Rao on the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat in 1996.

Age hasn’t withered his enthusiasm. Wearing his trademark white cap, a blue coat and carrying a cricket bat, his poll symbol, Subudhi leaves for his campaign at 5.30am taking a bus and train to his destination. Once there, he walks for miles, meets people and

discusses political issues. “I have a cup of cold milk and millet before I leave for campaigning and return home around 11pm. I do have a monthly train pass to travel. As I am the MP candidate, the bus conductors politely refuse to issue tickets and allow me to travel free,” he says.

“It’s not that political parties have not offered tickets to me. I don’t want to be their agent. People have seen that I’m the only man who has steadfastly refused to join any political party since the 1960s. I try to convince people to vote for qualified people and not get swayed by party politics. I ask them not to succumb to any kind of fear and continue to tell them it is better to die once than to live in fear,” the doctor told this newspaper on the campaign trail.

How does he weigh his chances? “I did well in the election for Berhampur, where my fight was against the Congress. I am hopeful people will back me in Aska also,” he said.

Subudhi also has a budget for the election. “I am a registered practitioner. I used to prescribe medicines, both homeopathy as well as allopathic. This time I have kept Rs 5 lakh for my election expenditure though it is almost a no-frills campaign style.”

Though Subudhi’s detractors says he is obsessed about getting an entry into the Guinness World Records, residents said he is a man of principles.