After JB Patnaik completed his term as Governor of Assam and returned to the State, a section of State Congress has gone upbeat with a high hope that the 87-year-old veteran leader could set the faction-ridden Congress house in order and give it a new direction.
That is the reason why he was dished out a rousing welcome by a horde of party leaders and workers at the Biju Patnaik air port recently.
JB’s arrival after a long gap and his assertion that he has not distanced himself from active politics has fuelled speculation that he may be given a leading role in State Congress politics ahead no matter whether he is projected as the Chief Minister candidate or made the next PCC chief.
The State Congress in order to face off the ruling BJD has to overcome many of its handicaps which have over the years stymied it.
The national party is yet to have a consensual leader who not just enjoys the trust of one and all in the party rank and file but has the personality and image at par with or better than BJD chief and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Patnaik has two important things: First, a rich political legacy being the son of legendary leader and former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik and second, efficiency and political acumen.
When the State was looking for an alternative administration of Congress Government being fed up with its misrule and corruption, BJD was formed and its reins were handed out to Patnaik who was a novice in politics and just came out of the blue. Nobody knew Patnaik before Biju lived.
Biju’s death created huge sympathy wave for Patnaik. Besides, the BJD-BJP tie-up helped the new regional party gain ascendancy as it began to bask in former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s
brilliance.
Patnaik, therefore, clicked at a time when the non-Congress parties in Odisha were reeling under a leadership crisis. The idea of bringing Patnaik to the limelight was a roaring success because the people of Odisha wanted a change and a new leader.
Even being the longest serving Chief Minister, Patnaik has failed to make Odisha look up and rid it of a poverty and backward tag. There have been large scale allegations of corruption and misrule against him.
The stage is set for a change of guard but the vacuum of a new leadership is haunting the non BJD parties, be it Congress or the BJP. If the Congress can get over this problem and think about somebody who can be trustworthy for everybody at this critical juncture, the national party can only prove to be an alternative of the BJD. It has to scout for such a leader.
The State Congress is passing through a bad time not just due to factionalism and lack of a consensual PCC chief, but because of many of its leaders switching sides.
In the last elections, several leaders, workers and supporters changed over to either the BJD or the BJP for selfish interest. This had had a debilitating effect on the party as a whole. When former Congress strong man and the then Opposition leader Bhupinder Singh switched over to the BJD, he had not just exposed how insecure the leaders were in the party due to leg-pulling and lack of cohesion, but the very character of a Congress man to be easily won over for narrow interest.
The national party has got a golden opportunity to wrest power in the 2019 election as the cover over BJD Government’s dark side is getting lifted. But for this it needs to brace up for a mass mobilization. Anybody who so ever is given the mantle of the State Congress has several challenges to face. He has to unite the party internally and mobilize the people of the State in its favour.
Despite his long experience, intellect and expertise, JB is an old symbol. Besides, he is physically frail and his health may not permit him to undertaken that arduous exercise needed to mobilize the people of the State. But, when JB is in action, the fate of the State Congress is sure to change for the better.