The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has certainly faced a big jolt in the tribal-prone Sundargarh belt in the latest general elections. For, the party supremo, the dismal performance was quite embarrassing.
Patnaik’s bitterest critic Jual Oram won the Sundargarh Parliament seat. For Patnaik, losing the Sundergarh seat was utterly disappointing. He had fielded no low profile leader. His blue eyed boy and hockey icon Dilip Tirkey, known for his simplicity and popularity among the tribals, had let Patnaik down as the results were announced.
Adding insult to Naveen’s injury was Oram who not only won the elections, but also was inducted in the Union Cabinet despite BJP winning a single seat from the State.
Patnaik’s embarrassment and shock did not end there. His party also lost the Rourkela Assembly seat, which was known as the bastion of BJD since 2000. It never lost the elections since then.
But in the 2014 elections, BJD not only lost the seat but also found Patnaik’s betenoire Dilip Ray winning it. Interestingly BJD Rourkela district president and women wing president were not seen in Rourkela constituency all through the election campaign.
loss of the Biramitrapur Assembly seat was another shocker. Patnaik’s critic George Tirkey continued to maintain the winning streak despite the ruling party’s all-out efforts to check his advances.
Notably, Tirkey was former BJD’s Sundargarh district unit president and criticizing Patnaik as the anti-tribal, he had left the party eight years back.
Realising the party’s debacle, the local BJD leaders, including different frontal units, instead of working together in both Sundargarh and Rourkela units to strengthen the party, remained busy in a blame game. Perhaps, aggrieved with the election results, the BJD supremo has not been showing any interest in the Sundargarh leaders.
He did not include any MlA from the district in his Cabinet and removed Padmini Sekhar Deo from the position of WODC chairperson two years before her tenure was to be complete. At the same time, he has not rehabilitated any of the district leaders with top posts in any corporation or bodies.
Now, the party image in the Steel City is at a stake as the women wing president Miniati Debta and a youth leader Prakash Paswan picked up a fight over a petty issue at a ‘Ganga Bhoji’. Both are now behind the bars for last ten days. Similarly, party’s student wing is not in a healthy position as its district committee president, a week after of his appointment, had left the party and joined with the Dilip Ray camp. Though he again retreated to BJD, yet so far no one is officially given regular charge by the committee.
Political observers here feel there is an urgent need to restructure the BJD district committees, including the frontal organisations or else the party’s performance may not look up in coming Rourkela Municipal Corporation elections. The greatest difficulty for the party seems to be choosing heads to lead its local unit and its various frontal organisations.