It was January 23 when beaming eminent sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra emerged from the ramparts of Naveen Niwas with Naveen Patnaik’s promised support of the Biju Janata Dal’s 18 MlAs’ votes in his favour as an Independent candidate for the fourth seat in the Rajya Sabha elections of the State. The subsequent dark and chilly nights of Bhubaneswar have not warmed up for him at the slightest over the past so many days as he has treaded the uncharted treacherous terrain of Odisha politics.
Awarded the Padma Shri way back in 1975, the Padma Bhushan in 2001 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013, this legend of a sculptor is today finding it difficult to secure backing of another 12 MlAs to scale the insurmountable support target of 30 MlAs for his win. Mohapatra’s preponderance on the refurbishment and restoration of the age-old temples in Odisha has been widely acknowledged. Naveen Patnaik perhaps felt that probably the BJP might support Mohapatra considering his line of religious institutions’ development. But the BJP’s, at least its State unit’s reluctance to back the “BJD-sponsored candidate” has left Mohapatra’s fate highly uncertain.
The problem started on the day Mohapatra’s nomination was declared. Earlier in the day, the BJP’s Dharmendra Pradhan had told the media that if the BJD proposed an eminent person as a candidate for the fourth seat in consultations with the other parties then the BJP might be willing to support such a candidate. Probably, the BJD felt that if a person who has worked on temples could be pitched forth, the BJP might be happy to identify with such a person given its politico-religious philosophy. And Naveen Patnaik hoped that Mohapatra would find greater solace from the BJP. But later, with a dwindling interest in Mohapatra’s candidature and an intra-party consolidation of Congress MlAs’ support for Ranjib Biswal, the pitch for IPl chief Biswal has become more favourable while it has become a sticky wicket for Mohapatra.
The BJD is now caught between the rock and a hard place. If the BJP does not support Mohapatra, he is destined to lose, giving a shot in arm to the Congress and a massive face-saver to the beleaguered PCC chief Jayadev Jena. This realisation probably forced senior BJD leader Damodar Rout to state that it is the responsibility of Mohapatra to obtain support of another 12 MlAs for his victory. If that be the case then why should Mohapatra have filed his nomination papers alongside the three official BJD candidatesIJ
Further, there are murmurs that a person of such glory in the field of Odishan art and culture Mohapatra should have been offered an official BJD seat. Now, the BJD is faced with a major setback. The rather rushed support for Mohapatra is also a surprise from Naveen Patnaik, who is usually known to play with his cards close to his chest till the very last moment.
This classical paradoxical case of Mohapatra is a lesson for all those aspiring nonmainstream politicians who want to jump into the bandwagon of politics having excelled in sports, arts, culture, literature, social work, community development, among others. When it comes to number crunching, like life, politics can also be a great leveller.
Suddenly, Mohapatra has become a subject for Trolls and FB jokes, which is entirely unfortunate. Politics is a jealous wife; if you don’t understand her well and take care of her concerns carefully, she can be the biggest disaster in your life. If Mohapatra loses the Rajya Sabha election, it will not be a moral loss for the BJD, which now tries to seek an escape route as evident from Damodar Rout’s statement. It would also be a loss of faith for many such Raghunath Mohapatras, who would want to contribute better through political forums like the Rajya Sabha. Now, Mohapatra keeps raising his hands, saying lord Jagannath’s blessings are his last hope!
(Dr Sasmit Patra is a keen observer of the Odisha politics. He can be reached at sasmitpatra@gmail.com)