Rourkela MLA Sarada Prasad Nayak has won the confidence of BJD supremo and CM Naveen Patnaik for which he was been nominated as president of BJD Rourkela district unit.
The Sundargarh BJD District Orgnisational Committee has been again bifurcated with a separate Rourkela district unit. This arrangement was there from 2004 to 2017. In 2017, the two units were merged. But political pundits feel Nayak has to face many challenges ahead in Rourkela.
After May 29, 2012 midnight coup, allegedly staged by former BJD strategist and former Rajya Sabha MP late Pyarimohan Mohapatra against Patnaik, in which Nayak among a few leaders allegedly were Mohapatra’s close confidants, CM Patnaik had removed Nayak from his Cabinet giving a very negative remarks on him. Despite this, due to his patience and hard work over the years, Nayak managed to win back the faith of Patnaik when he got the BJD ticket for Rourkela Assembly seat in 2014.
Again, despite losing the election, Patnaik rehabilitated him as Chairman, Rourkela Development Authority and in 2017 assigned the responsibility of working president of party’s Sundargarh District Committee. Again in 2019, despite stiff challenges, Nayak got party ticket and was elected from Rourkela seat. Patnaik also appointed him as the President, Sundargarh District Planning Board and now assigned as president of BJD Rourkela unit.
It was nonetheless tough for Nayak to regain confidence of his boss, but after he was made the party chief of Rourkela unit, his challenges would be even tougher.
Nayak’s sour equation with many frontline leaders of the party here is an issue. This was manifest during 2019 election ticket allotment and campaign time. Many of Nayak’s loyals applied for ticket. Even a potential female leader Minati Debta filed nomination as an independent and after the interference of the top leaders in Bhubaneswar, she withdrew but so far, she has not been rehabilitated by the party in any glorified post.
Similarly, another prominent female leader Rashmibala Mishra who had come to politics and became Rourkela Municipality Chairperson with the blessing of Nayak is now a key critic of Nayak. Senior leader Anand Mohanty who was once upon a time an ardent supporter of Nayak and was party district chief for a long period of 13 years continuously is now criticising Nayak. Besides he was also a strong aspirant for the party’s district chief.
Another factor is Raghunathpalli MLA Subrat Tarai. It is an open secret that since last many years both Nayak and Tarai are not in good terms. Nayak is also not carrying good rapport with many party leaders and mass organisation leaders of all the four Assembly segments like Rourkela, Raghunathpalli, Biramitrapur and Bonai.
The immediate tough challenges for Nayak are the elections to the Rourkela Municipal Corporation, Biramitrapur Municipality, Rourkela Urban Cooperative Bank Director post and selection of Rourkela Development Authority chief. But observers are of the opinion that Nayak with his good organisational skill can manage them with ease.