As BJD chief desperate not to see Mohapatra in Assembly
That BJD boss Naveen Patnaik is hell-bent on ensuring that his bête noir Bijay Mohapatra does not enter the State Assembly was evident from the former's apparently panic visit to the Mahakalpada constituency, from which Mohapatra is contesting as the BJP candidate, on Wednesday.
Patnaik had to cut short his campaigning in the areas where the first-phase elections are to be held on April 10 to rush to Mahakalpada in Kendrapada district, which is to go polls in the second and last round on April 17.
In fact, this was Patnaik's first campaigning in a second-phase election constituency. While he will continue his electioneering in the first-phase poll areas till the permissible date of April 8, his decision to campaign in Mahakalpada in between holds obvious political significance.
BJD sources said he would visit Mahakalpada several more times later to see to it that Mohapatra is prevented from an Assembly berth for the fourth time in a row.
No wonder that Patnaik on his Wednesday visit to Mahakalpada sought to play the card of "Biju Patnaik's betrayer" against Bijay Mohapatra to influence the voters against him. To strike an emotional chord with the people of Kendrapada he described the district as "Bijubabu's Karmabhumi" (main centre of the late leader's political activities) to drive home the point that Mohapatra had allegedly sabotaged Biju Patnaik's return to power for the second consecutive time in the 1995 elections.
However, Bijay Mohapatra has now reacted sharply against Naveen Patnaik's allegation and challenged him for an open debate with him on the issue. "Where was Naveen Patnaik in 1995," Mohapatra has asked, obviously pointing out that Patnaik was nowhere on the political scene at that time.
"let Naveen Patnaik tell the people of Odisha when he met his father Biju Patnaik last before his death in April 1997," Mohapatra has further tried to embarrass the BJD chief.
"In any case, he was nowhere to be seen when Bijubabu was alive. He is obviously making the allegation either based on hearsay or is imagining it. I challenge him to a one-on-one public debate on the issue which I am sure would reveal the truth about who betrayed whom," said Mohapatra.
Mohapatra has stated that it was he who brought Naveen Patnaik to politics in 1997 after his father Biju Patnaik's death and was instrumental in establishing the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) with him (Naveen) as its head.
Mohapatra has stated that he does not believe in "shadowboxing" in politics and wants a public debate on what Naveen Patnaik said about betrayal to Biju Patnaik. It may be mentioned that Naveen Patnaik in his speech on Wednesday had not named Mohapatra as a "Biju betrayer" though the reference was loud enough for everyone.