Virtually every sitting BJD MlA, including Ministers except Naveen Patnaik and a few of his close associates, is having sleepless nights as they don't feel sure whether to get party ticket to contest from their seats again this time.
Similar is the fate of most of the 14 incumbent BJD lok Sabha members. The tension of those belonging to the constituencies for which the elections will be held on April 10 in the first phase in the State will continue till March 13, and in the case of those for the second and last phase of polling on April 17 their worries will last till March 16.
This was known on Monday when Kalpataru Das, known to be Naveen Patnaik's closest of the BJD vice-presidents, told reporters at the boss's residence that the first-phase candidates' list would be announced by March 13 and the second phase on March 16. Das said Patnaik is in talks with party leaders from different levels to finalise the candidates' lists for the two phases.
The BJD, though totally dictated by Patnaik, will be the last party in deciding its candidates. The State's two other major parties, the Congress and the BJP, have already released their first-round candidates' lists and are likely to announce the remaining names in next couple of days.
Naveen Patnaik clearly is waiting for the other parties' lists of nominees before finalising his BJD candidates. This wait and watch move on his part is intriguing to political observers in view of his and his party's oft-repeated assertion that the BJD will come to power in the State for a fourth consecutive term.
The observers discern an apparent sense of uncertainty and even insecurity haunting Patnaik in deciding party candidates despite netting in a number of leaders from other parties, especially the Congress, and film actors to the BJD fold in recent days.
In fact, the crowding of the hitherto non-BJD leaders in his party seems to have created a major problem for Patnaik. In his bid to show people that the main opposition Congress is a dying force in the State on the eve of the elections, he has created a resultant problem of hidden dissidence in his ruling party, which is likely to come to the fore after the party's own aspirants are deprived of tickets.
Patnaik has to accommodate almost all the new entrants to the BJD like erstwhile leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh among the BJD candidates. In the process, he has to drop many incumbent BJD MlAs and MPs to yield space for the newcomers. And the “burden of plenty” in the BJD, as the observers refer to the “imported” faces, may cost the party dear in many constituencies.