Samikhsya Bureau
Notwithstanding what comes out on the final day, a reality check by a Samikhsya team from Bhubaneswar has some interesting inputs from Hinjili and adjoining areas. The moot point was whether BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik would make it for the fifth time to defend his candidature in Hinjili or the voters would show him the way out.
The team never donned the garb of media nor agency nor any political outfit during its entire stretch of the journey to ultimately find out that the orchestrated grim scenario waiting to haunt Naveen in Hinjili did not seem to be based on any ground realities.
Bordering the key segment Hinjili, the team went for a sample test to read a few pulses at a place called Pitala, barely 3 km from the highway, an area, not far from Berhampur and heading towards Aska. It was a small market commercially vibrant consist of weavers and other communities, where the people are not ready to buy the notion of anything other than Naveen Patnaik.
Believe it or not, there were people idling at a few tea shops in that stormy climate of rain and thunder, when casually teased to opine as what if Patnaik’s shifting focus in Bijepur stands to stay with him and not Hinjli, many were not ready to take it lightly and retorted our colleagues’ question as hypothetical and a few youngsters, who appeared a bit literate, had it like this “so what, if he quits then his nephew is welcome to Hinjili”.
But one dichotomy that was visible among a few middle-class looking people was “Naveen here and Modi there”. That is a double whammy that Naveen Patnaik and his political advisers must take note of.
It was not only surprising but amazing that the people whom we view to be in the back-waters have thought about a legacy that must be given a perpetuation. Which even the town folks must not have pondered about.
Way to Hinijli was never that undulated one than what was witnessed in 2009 campaign trail. The tracks of improvement were good then but now the road communication is so good though not strikingly excellent. Facilities those have come up in Hinijli are there for all to see than believing what our team describes.
The fear about Naveen Patnaik may face a potential rival in Pitamber Acharya of the BJP, has no buyers in specific, except a chosen chunk possibly swayed by the popularity of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And that is a point that the BJD must not take lightly.
It is not an effort to hold any brief for any political party or Naveen Patnaik but the brief stints of interactions do point at a high voltage propaganda machinery in action, which presumably tries to impose a flip-flop that the ground reality negates.
