Stakes are sky high for the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the forthcoming by-election in the Bijepur Assembly constituency. It seems the Congress, which held the seat before the death of its MlA Subal Sahu recently, does not matter in this fight because it is a divided house in the State. If at all, the Congress retains the seat by chance, it will not have a big impact on the State politics. The real focus is on the BJD-BJP encounter ahead of the general elections. The Bijepur battle is the watershed in the State’s political events, particularly in the context of the growing BJD-BJP contest for the first slot. BJD boss Naveen Patnaik is bound to be madly serious, as he is, about the outcome in Bijepur. The reason is quite simple: If the by-poll is won by the BJP, the party would get a big shot in its arm as it now claims to capture as many as at least 120 of the 147 Assembly seats in the general elections. The BJP would also prove further consolidation of its ground in the concerned Bargarh district in particular and western Odisha in general, where it scored far ahead of the BJD in the February panchayat polls. The BJD in that event would be reduced to a defensive position that would augur an ominous future for it and may derail its plan for a fifth consecutive rule. Naveen Patnaik appears to be particularly restless over the Bijepur fray as his choice of the candidate, Rita Sahu, has unsettled BJD equations in the area. This is evident from his daily interactions with local party leaders and efforts to bring other parties’ cadres to the BJD fold.
Congress gives up battle before fighting it
One wonders how the Congress high command is so insensitive towards the party’s future in Odisha. The Bijepur Assembly by-election is impending, but the party does not seem to be bothered about it even though the seat was held by its deceased MlA Subal Sahu. It is but natural that the Congress should retain the constituency. But the party leadership is nonchalant. The blame squarely lies with the AICC, especially its vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Over the last so many months, Gandhi has been calling State party leaders to Delhi and holding parleys with them about how to revive the State organisation. A clear majority of the leaders, mostly MlAs, have been pleading for a change of PCC president. The majority wants Niranjan Patnaik to take the helm of the party. But a section of leaders, who have ceased to be elected to the Assembly or Parliament for a long time, are opposed to this move, taking a meaningless plea that a new PCC president should not be nominated before the party’s ongoing organistional polls that would end later this month. In the prevailing scenario, incumbent State party chief Prasad Harichandan appears demoralised and unable to lead the party. A lame duck PCC head as he is, he has not spoken a word about the Bijepur by-poll. Meanwhile, more and more Congress leaders of the constituency are being roped in to the BJD. The Congress seems to have given up the Bijepur battle before fighting it.
Don’t remind me of my age, says Damodar
Damodar Rout, clearly, loathes the talk of the age factor in electoral politics. As one after another Congress leader such as leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra and former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal announce that they would not contest elections as they have attained the age of 70, the 76-year-old BJD Minister Rout argues that the older a politician turns, the wiser he becomes to serve people. Never-say-it-die Rout, no doubt, wants to fight the next elections even at the age of 78. Though he has publicly announced his son as his political heir, he may postpone his child’s induction into the electoral fight in his Paradip fiefdom for a future election!