Baijayant Panda has a new history behind the formation of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with which he now “feels at home”.
Panda said that the BJD had its origin in 1998 as an ally of the BJP. By this, he apparently trying to say that the BJD would not have come into being had the BJP not supported its establishment.
But the question is why Panda, who used to take pride in being a founding-leader of the BJD, didn’t choose to be in the BJP fold two decades ago, without being part of the new regional outfit.
Panda, who never fails to swear by Biju Patnaik’s ideals, is now all praise for the BJP, which Biju Patnaik had at time pooh-poohed as a “signboard party” and termed it as “communal”.
Though many may not agree, it was a fact that the Odisha unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) which Biju Patnaik was leading till his demise in 1997, was effectively transformed into the BJD, a party named after him, and the BJD decided to strike an alliance with the BJP to take advantage of the then Atal Bihari Vajpayee wave in the elections. The founding leaders of the BJD invited Biju Patnaik’s son Naveen Patnaik to head the party for added electoral gains on the ground of “Biju legacy”.
The interesting point is Baijayant Panda has only realised the virtues of the BJP after so many years when he was forced to quit the BJD for his criticism of Naveen Patnaik’s style of administration and his tilt towards the BJP in the last couple of years, after the BJD made him a Rajya Sabha member for one term and a Lok Sabha member twice.
Panda, according to political observers, was undecided about joining the BJP soon after being eased out of the BJD as the saffron party was mauled in the Assembly polls in three major States last year. But he chose to plunge into the BJP fold with the hope that the BJP would ride the wave in this year’s general elections because of Modi’s popularity over the Indian actions against the Pakistan-based terror outfits.