By D.N. Singh
What happened to the Bharatiya Janta Party’s front line leaders in the state? A party that tom-toms about an intense wave in its favour, its leaders in Odisha have resorted to a stance of genuflection to entice leaders to join or re-join the saffron camp.
The most recent case being the statement from none other than the Union minister Jual Oram, who has gone overboard to cajole its earlier member Dilip Ray to come back to the party as soon as possible. An open statement from a leader of his seniority can’t be construed as Oram’s love for Ray. But, making it straight it can be said that, it is the political expediency within the BJP and in Oram in particular days before the phase two polls.
Oram is fighting for the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat against a backdrop of a lacklustre performance in 2014 when he just managed to win with a slender margin. But this time around he has perhaps smelt the rot and sensing that Ray viewed to be a man of formidable political influence in Rourkela and around, and stands with open arms to embrace him.
On again and off again features shown by Ray also indicate that his truck with politics is more opportunistic than an emotional bond with the masses. For quite some time, he had been hammering at the Prime Minister for reneging over the two promises for Rourkela: Super speciality hospital and second bridge over Brahmani river.
Taking that as a ground for the grudge, he had resigned from the BJP after a prolonged phase of oblivion and then lancing in political wilderness. Neither the Congress had any accommodation for him nor could he qualify to win back Naveen Patnaik’s confidence for an entry into the BJD.
Similarly, Bijoy Mohapatra was also approached by the BJP to come back not out of love but his usefulness in the politically vibrant Kendrapada Lok Sabha constituency where the state’s big political potboiler is on the floors.
So after pushing Ray and Mohapatra into political humiliation, the saffron camp suddenly rediscovered their hidden virtues required for Sundargarh and Kendrapada respectively.
And, both Ray and Mohapatra do symbolise as how to weather the windstorms of abandonment and how to survive the vicissitudes of the process built upon opportunism, in which the BJP not only finds its bragging shrill but, now appears realising the reality that ‘I am not what I am’.
