Pitiable that heavyweight Odisha leader Bijay Mohapatra seems headed for another spell of political wilderness. And for this, he has to blame his bloated ego.
Mohapatra, who is out of power ever since he was eased out of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) by Naveen Patnaik in 2000 even though he was a founder-leader of the regional outfit, made unsuccessful experiments with his own creation, Odisha Gana Parishad, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP.
He finally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after the BJD ended its alliance with the saffron party before the 2009 elections. But he has all along been feeling uneasy in the BJP as the affairs in the party are not always in accordance with his scheme of things.
Mohapatra and a few of his likeminded leaders of the BJP like Dilip Ray have been at loggerheads with the party’s State leadership on many intraparty and State-related issues. They now appear to be particularly uncomfortable with Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party State president Basanta Panda.
In the latest development, on the issue of the Mahanadi water issue, Mohapatra has publicly targeted Pradhan, who is the Chief Ministerial face with clear indications from none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And in the process, he has embarrassed the BJP central leadership on this issue.
Pradhan propagates the Central Government’s stand that a Joint Control Board (JCB) can resolve the Mahanadi dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh. But Mohapatra chose to call a media conference to air his different views on the subject.
Mohapatra claims that a JCB cannot resolve the inter-State dispute as it is a “toothless” instrument and those like Pradhan who advocate for it are ignorant about the matter.
Mohapatra said he is in favour of a River Board under the River Board Act of the Central Government to effectively deal with the issue. He claimed that as an erstwhile Irrigation Minister of the State, he knows it all.
No doubt, his views, which may be in Odisha’s interests, are a challenge to the Modi Government’s stand and have embarrassed the BJP high command even if his immediate target is Dharmendra Pradhan.
To add to Mohapatra’s problems, the BJD, his arch enemy, has interesting come out praising his statement against that of Pradhan. BJD leader Surjya Narayan Patro, obviously at the instance of his boss Naveen Patnaik, has told the media that Mohapatra’s idea on the Mahanadi issue is a welcome one.
The BJD’s tongue-in-cheek praise for Mohapatra is undoubtedly aimed at embarrassing Pradhan, Modi’s Odisha poster boy, who has of later become more vocal against the BJD Government.
In this situation, according to political observers, Mohapatra’s existence in the BJP is becoming increasingly untenable as he cannot continue to attack the party being part of it. If he is out of the national party, there will be a big question mark on his political future.
This, as political circles say, lends some credence to the talk of a new regional party to be formed by dissidents of the BJP and the Congress. The speculations about such an outfit have especially followed an “all-party meeting” held recently in Bhubaneswar.
The all-party meeting, which was convened by leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra of the Congress and attended by Bijay Mohapatra and the Congress’ Niranjan Patnaik, was ignored not only by the ruling BJD but also by the State presidents of the Congress and the BJP. Congress leaders like Srikant Jena even criticised his party’s leaders for sharing the dais with those of the “untouchable” BJP.