The bonhomie between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after the general elections has made the upcoming Patkura Assembly polls in Kendrapada district a greatly interesting political affair.
The Patkura polling, scheduled on July 20, was earlier considered a prestigious fight between the BJP and the BJD with Bijay Mohapatra and Sabitri Agrawalla as the candidates of the two parties, respectively. But the increasing BJP-BJD coziness witnessed in some major political developments recently has changed the perception.
Many observers are of the view that BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has of late tilted towards the BJP to stump Bijay Mohapatra’s entry into the State Assembly yet once again. So, the Patkura hustings are going to be mere shadowboxing with a motive to let the BJD win the seat.
Patnaik has succeeded in keeping Mohapatra away from the Assembly ever since he came to power in year 2000 by several political masterstrokes as he apparently considers Mohapatra as a potential schemer against his career. So, Patnaik has also to play his game again in the Patkura context, feel political analysts.
In fact, the BJD is overactive in campaigning in Patkura now with many Ministers and MLAs camping in the constituency while the BJP is far behind in its efforts to woo the voters. Interestingly, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has remarked that the BJP is carrying out its campaigning according to “its own strategy”.
In this scenario, the Congress, which has also fielded its candidate in Patkura, alleges that the BJD and the BJP are hands in glove in the electoral battle. Senior Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati on Sunday said that the BJD and the BJP have made a “fixing” over the Patkura electoral match. Naveen Patnaik is dead against Bijay Mohapatra getting into the Assembly, which the BJP would ensure, he said.
An apparently Bijay Mohapatra, on the other hand, said that he would win the elections as it is a “question of Swabhiman” for the Patkura people, who want him to elect to the Assembly.