Even after landing in jail for robbing public money, Sasikala has been considered a leader by sycophantic cronies, one of whom is now Chief Minister. Strangely, Amma followers who swooned at her sight, have not yet discarded the late woman as Tamil Nadu’s enemy and keep imagining her as a ‘Saint’. Chinnamma’s slave CM Palaniswami takes orders from the ‘prison-cell lady’ to run administration. The Supreme Court verdict says Amma was and Sasikala is public money robber. The once great Tamil community, known for its fantastic culture with the oldest language on the Indian soil, has not once protested against Amma photo display. The DMK, equally infamous for perpetual corruption, is only revelling over the AIDMK’s stupid deification of the two women, one in jail and the other not in bodily form. Movie craze is the prime driving force behind sending tinsel town creatures to the lawmaking temples. Sasikala says she is Amma’s political inheritor. Amma’s niece has also claimed stake. Paneerselvam, the Amma-chosen one, is garnering support to topple Sasikala’s gang in power. Believing her proxy regime is safe for now, Sasikala has started worrying for about a mattress, a table-fan and ‘carnivore meals’, which the jail authorities cannot provide. The Congress, relatively free of movie-craze, is likely to take the proverbial ‘monkey advantage’ as two stupid cats are fighting to attain self-serving objectives. There is all likelihood of the apex court taking cognisance of the criminal act suo motu and pass orders against Amma photo display at public establishments. Tamil Nadu people have to wake up now. The Dravidians, incidentally, were superior to the Aryans in every respect except warfare. Today, the lost glory has to be regained. Amma pictures have to go.
w Back in the east, Odisha has for long a magician Chief Minister called Naveen Patnaik, who has overshadowed the legendary Biju Patnaik under whose glory the BJD was created. The kids of the new millennium just beginning to cast votes have no idea who exactly Biju Patnaik was. They recognise Naveen as the BJD face that will complete ruling for two decades at a stretch since 2000 unlike other regimes that keep losing steam due to the age-old anti-incumbency phenomenon.
All the same, in the last panchayat elections, the BJP has come up with appreciable victory, good enough to give the BJD strategists sleepless nights. The BJP says the Modi factor did the wonder. But analysts say the corresponding BJD debacle is due to the arrogant conduct of some frontline party leaders. Some headless BJD biggies have abused authority to indulge in glaringly brazen nepotism or corrupt activities like in Kalahandi and Mayurbhanj. Sudan Marandi betrayed his mother party JMM for personal gains and so lost conclusively. Disgust for Marandi forced people to tilt toward the BJP. But some western and southern districts did shift choice, maybe because of proximity to Chhattisgarh where the infectious BJP wind is blowing with remarkable strength. The BJP cadres attribute the success to the systematic organisational work in the last two years roping in three million new members through a doubtful ‘missed-call’ technique. They claim having deployed ablest cadres at 35,000 of the 92,000 booths in the panchayat elections; organised at least 50,000 meetings across the State and distributed 50,000 leaflets to bring to public notice how poor people were forced to pay bribe to benefit from the Indira Awas Yojana or old age allowance scheme. The other fact they don’t share is that the Congress in Odisha is in deathbed as no credible leader has shown up to usher the party to light. Each big one is fighting the other at any point in time. Thus, there is no reason for the BJP to revel at this ‘victory’ which does not forecast doom for the BJD in the general elections. Further, ‘Naveen whipping’ would have occurred by then to reform nearly all the party crooks for which the disaster has happened now. Even further, money play will be at peak as the BJP is already a very wealthy party. Modi, Amit, Gadkari and many others know the skills of money power to get votes although it will be a herculean task to bulldoze into the BJD fortress in 2019. It’s not untrue that Modi’s hyper-theatrical harangue has started causing fatigue among masses. Naveen is much smarter by remaining reticent. Besides, there is no such BJP leader in Odisha to match Naveen. Dharmendra Pradhan is yet to have an electoral base. Though polite, Pradhan parroting Modi antics is eroding his elevated stature. State boss Basanta Panda has just bitten the dust in his own den. Kanak Vardhan is not assertively articulate. Most interestingly, Jual Oram is just not charismatic because he has ceased to be part of an aboriginal tribe. He lives like a prince but pretends to be a poor ‘forest hunter’.
Most importantly, what BJP strategists don’t realise is that Naveen did not step out to campaign for the polls this time except in his own Hinjili constituency. The BJP roped in Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Jharkhand CCM Raghubar Das, former Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda, Union Ministers Ramkripal Yadav and of course Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan for campaigning. The BJP has risen from 36 in 2012 to 297 now. Dying Congress is written off. No wonder, they gifted most of their earlier 128 seats to the BJP.
BJD leaders anonymously blame Naveen for not giving time for campaign. They do not still realise that Naveen has proven them to be thoroughly useless. He has established the fact that without him, the BJD leaders would just be dropped like hot bricks and dumped in the garbage yard. loudmouths including Maharathy and Surjya Patro keep weeping for Naveen never doing a rushing job across sensitive locations. little do they realise that rural or any self-government body election processes looks ethically correct when no top leaders go dancing in public. Naveen has preserved his energy for the main drama. Shrewd politicians know how to react, when to talk, whom and when to suspect and with what weapon to strike the enemy for a conclusive victory.
For all this, there is little chance that the BJP would do wonders in 2019, more so because by then, Modi would have slid down further in the popularity ladder after the Punjab and UP polls where victory seems slim as of now. Dharmendra Pradhan may have been told by the BJP high command to gear up to run for Odisha CM.
But he has to capture a geographical constituency first. Kanak Vardhan, Dilip Ray and perpetually ignored Bijay Mohapatra are least likely to let him surpass them in the race. This messed-up status will remain hanging for long, at least until 2019. The BJD may lose some seats in 2019, but the BJP will not do miracles as their stars do not have much light-emitting power as Naveen, no matter how logically or otherwise.