By D.N. Singh
Efforts by various political leaders, right from Baijayant Panda to now Kharavela Swain to stitch together an anti-Naveen Patnaik ‘gathabandhan’ sort of unit to checkmate the Biju Janata Dal in general and Naveen Patnaik in particular, seem to be fizzling slowly with no consolidation in sight.
It is not that such an emergence is not necessary or can be a mere smoke-screen but what is desperately lacking is the unwillingness among the anti-Naveen elements to get somewhere near unity before scripting the strategies.
What is paramount in such a political conglomeration is a hassle-free atmosphere where the conflict of interest is very detrimental. However, among the lot, who seem to be unhappy with the present dispensation and sounding innuendos at Patnaik’s alleged misrule boiled to a kind of ‘anarchy’, each of them pretend to be a leader with a second to none mindset. That is perhaps the main reason that the glue of unity has never been able to bring them under one umbrella, let alone the formation that can dare the BJD chief who has been successful to keep the party he leads with a look of invincibility so far.
Swain, who has remained a loner in politics for last several years after leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party, has miserably failed to give steam to his Utkal Bharat party. A sharp critic of Patnaik, Swain has never been able to become a rallying point and even in an atmosphere of anti-incumbency, Swain is still a loner and his efforts to day remain within statements. Particularly, after the physical assaults on him allegedly by BJD goons it was all some sympathy credited into his political account and nothing more.
The stories of Damodar Rout, Baijayant Panda, Braja Kishore Tripathy and few others are more or less similar falling into the category of non-starters after brief knee-jerks. Rout has reportedly given up the will to forge any such combination and sources say that he has been repenting for his verbal overdrives.
Bijay Mohapatra and Dillip Ray, the duo that suffered the ignominy of isolation in the BJP have almost subjugated themselves to the state from where they can hardly redeem the residual political credibility. More or less it is like a situation when one chooses wilderness than being a fence-sitter who lost all conviction.
Moreover, Mohapatra and Ray are from different school of thoughts, one is a die-hard over-aspiring politician and the other who believes in politics as a tool to enhance his business.
The only other man left out is Panda who loves to remain in a world of his own, call it either make-believe or utopian, which is a common trait with politicians used to piggyback rides.
“Moosafir hun yaron, na ghar hai na thikana” seem to be the appropriate line for all of them. Though unlikely so far, but if the group can manage even a temporary showdown for few months it may upset the BJD chemistry.
