Samikhsya Bureau
With mercury on the rise, the pace of politics for the ensuing polls in many areas has assumed a menacing proportion. Languages have changed and so also the sharpness and each candidate is now bracing up with all available terms in the arsenal to brow-beat the opponent.
Among many Lok sabha constituencies going to the polls in the last phase , Kendrapada remains one such crucial area where the mood slowly gets tempestuous every passing day.
Baijayant Panda, who is the candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party has reasons to be very conscious about his prospects. With his sabre-rattling against Naveen Patnaik, becoming his main weapon, Panda seems revisiting his stock.
In a fresh bid Panda has turned to be defensive and apprehend that the Biju Janata Dal machinery has already resorted at stymieing his position by ‘goondaism ‘ and kind of such acts and, he fears, which may grow more perilous as the date of polling come closer and closer.
Panda knows that it is not going to be an easy task for him and that too in a state of bellicosity between him and the Biju Janata Dal. The rival here is not the BJD candidate but Naveen Patnaik himself against whom Panda had waged a kind of war through several platforms.
He should not be naïve enough to expect that the enemy camp would let him wade through the turbulence so easily. So he has burrowed a leaf from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has told his supporters to remain vigilant against all such odds. He has carefully tried to make political capital by adopting Modi’s ‘ Chowkidar’ buzz and trying to reap dividend.
But, in the circumstance he is in, Panda can’t afford to defend himself by merely wearing the watchdog garb but must learn to bite at occasions free of personal allusions. People want accountability and enjoying three terms as Lok sabha MP, Panda needs to give an account of his performances rather than merely polarising the campaign between him and Naveen Patnaik.
