There seems no stopping Minister Damodar Rout in his bigmouth utterances that in effect damage the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and obviously embarrasses Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
This time, Dr Rout, also a BJD vice-president, has come out with his observation that the BJD will continue to hold its sway even without Naveen Patnaik on the scene. His argument is the BJD will not lose its preeminence in the State politics as the party is named after legendary Biju Patnaik.
In a latest interview to a local TV channel, Rout has also indirectly welcomed the much-talked-about ‘move’ to induct Naveen Patnaik’s United States-based sister Gita Mehta into politics though he said politics should not be imposed on her.
Rout has even predicted that Gita Mehta will be a “better Chief Minister than others”.
Political observers, with their tongues in cheeks, marvel at Rout’s posture as an “all-knowing elder statesman displaying his pearls of wisdom” at the drop of every hat in the Odisha politics with the media, especially electronic, tuning to him for his “valued comments”.
While talking of an everlasting dominance of the party christened after Biju Patnaik, Rout conveniently forgets and the mediapersons perhaps ignorantly don’t ask him that he had kept away from the BJD when it was formed in late 1997 and preferred to continue in the erstwhile Janata Dal.
How come the “veteran” Rout had failed to assess at that time that the Biju name-boasting regional outfit would rule the roost in Odisha people’s mind, wonder observers. And interestingly, Rout had despised the ‘Biju Dal” so much so that he had described the party’s symbol ‘Conch’ as “Genda (snail)” because of some similarity in appearance between the two objects, point out the observers.
In fact, Rout came rushing into the BJD fold about two years later ahead of the 2000 Assembly polls after the party performed exceedingly well in the intervening lok Sabha elections in 1998.
Meanwhile, the chorus in the BJD in favour of Gita Mehta’s entry into politics became louder on Saturday with Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patsani also going gaga about it.
Patsani, who according to a section of the BJD may not be re-nominated for contesting the 2019 elections, told the media that “it will be a matter of pride for us” if Gita Mehta is brought to politics. Gita Mehta is not only Biju Patnaik’s child but a “world-renowned writer, he said extremely admiringly.