Samikhsya Bureau
Series exits from the Biju Janata Dal and that too of few senior faces normally raise a questions. What is going on in the BJD war room? And coinciding with that the series entries by some former government officers into the BJD have become a big poser for political thinkers. Slowly yet steadily, its all heading towards a situation of big vacuum about a month and half before the polls.
Some leaders, as goes the presumptions around, from the BJD may have to sit at the benches to make room for new faces. The recent entry of a loyal government officer (a technocrat by essence) Nalini Pradhan can be viewed at what direction BJD gameplans are being drawn. Pradhan is tipped to be a candidate and this is perhaps official.
It is heard from sources that five more in-service officers are going to take voluntary retirement and join politics is what could be gathered from the chatters in the party circles, are going to be candidates for 2019. Maybe few more officers are to follow suit shortly to join the BJD bandwagon. .
Such a step shall obviously provide grain for his critics because the Naveen Patnaik government, which has always been accused of being bureaucrat-driven, may have a government, if the BJD comes back to power, comprising officer-turned political leaders. That way the thrust remains but the outer wall shall be layered with touch of politics.
After the recent exit of a senior leader like Tathagat Satpathy, followers of political events foresee few more surprise exits from the BJD. It is immaterial whether Satpathy left politics, either driven by emotional reasons or out of fear of a last moment embarassment.
There are also rumours about a possible change in the candidate for Cuttack parliamentary seat. If that is going to be true, then it will be a thunderous exit by the incumbent MP, Bhatruhari Mehtab, who had succeeded to make a mark of himself in Parliament and was given the Best Parliamentarian of the year award recently.
Sambalpur MP Nagendra Pradhan’s interest contest again from the same seat is likely to upset the balance as the BJD has already made up its mind to field Nalini Pradhan there.
So also the leadership has its eyes on the Bhubaneswar as well to field someone to match up to the probable face from the Bharatiya Janata Party, Aparajita Sarangi. Baba Prasanna Patsani this time may be kept out. There may be many more in the offing.
This entire exercise, that is underway in the BJD, points at one thing. That is , the confidence that Naveen Patnaik has within him to yet again reassign to himself the role of an ocean whose tides of fame can weather the thunder of waves to break through the cliffs of a strong opposition.
