As was widely speculated, horse-trading of sorts for winning the fourth Rajya Sabha (RS) seat from the State, particularly by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), began as an open development on Thursday, a day before the polls on Friday.
Independent MlAs of Champua and Talcher Jitu Patnaik and Braja Kishore Pradhan, respectively, were “welcomed” by at BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at his residence Naveen Niwas in the morning to join his party as its “associate members” in the Assembly. This soared up the prospects of the BJD-backed Independent candidate for the fourth RS seat, sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra, against his fight against Congress nominee cricketer Ranjib Biswal.
Earlier, Braja Pradhan was a Congress-supported MlA while Jitu Patnaik was considered as a pro-Congress member of the legislature.
After first meeting Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat, the two MlAs proceeded to the Naveen Niwas, where they declared that they have accepted Naveen Patnaik as their leader for development of their respective constituencies and would be guided by his decision while voting in the Rajya Sabha polls.
Jitu Patnaik even significantly stated that he came to the BJD fold for the sake of his “protection”. Observers, however, wondered what protection he needs even being an MlA and quite wealthy person having wide influence in his Keonjhar district. The media, particularly the TV channels, were orchestrated earlier by the BJD sources about the MlAs’ coming to the Naveen Niwas.
Asked by the media what prompted them to choose to jump into the BJD bandwagon just on the eve of the RS polls and a couple of months prior to the general elections, the two MlAs had no convincing answers except parroting their seemingly spoon-fed statement that their decision was meant for development of their constituencies.