Samikhsya Bureau
If the existing indications are anything to go by, there is an apprehension in the build up within the ruling Biju Janata Dal that now faces a coaxing phase of its leaders leaving the party for alternative shelters. It is not that the party leadership had not foreseen such a situation but the party is seemingly under tremendous pressure in the face of risks taken by introducing new faces .
The scene in the BJD camp is like slithering of soil from under one’s feet, sending a message of panic among the cadres and undeniably a negative signal for voters. However, political exigencies appear to be more primary at this juncture and it is difficult to say if BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik can yet again retain the two decades long charm to woo the voters as the only face that fetches votes.
The series exits from the BJD are something the party should have tried to manage through negotiations to placate the ruffled psyche of the ones denied a second term. It is a situation and a challenge that remains to be seen how the leadership is going to manage and step out of the quick sand.
Regardless of the BJP’s high voltage media campaign and clamors to out-seat Naveen Patnaik by an unprecedented political victory in Odisha, the undue delay in announcing its candidate list has become a topic for gossip in political circles. A rumour seems to have been making rounds that they are mainly waiting for the leaders quitting the BJD to fill up the voids in their list for Odisha.
In fact, as has remained the trend so far, all the BJD leaders who had quit the party have joined the BJP and many of those leaders once mattered a lot in the BJD. Now, even anyone leaving either the BJD or Congress head towards the BJP making it appear like a sanctuary for the leaders fleeing from the BJD or deserters from the Congress party.
The BJP, however, sees terrible dearth of fitting probable in the party who can shoulder the burden of vote catching so, the party is banking more on such deserters from the BJD to design its electoral plan. “This shows the BJP is dejected, frustrated and out of ideas even before the electoral battle has started,” a BJD spokesman said .
