To spare himself of the ignominy of being denied the BJD ticket this time to seek reelection from the Dhenknal Lok Sabha constituency, Tathagata Satpathy has announced that he would virtually give up politics.
Satpathy's face-saver, speculated since some time, came on Tuesday when he, almost being cornered by the media, stated that he would not contest the coming elections. And the reason for this, he cited, was his son's insistence that he should now concentrate on journalism in his two newspapers, one in Odia and the other in English.
That Satpathy, a four-time MP, would be disallowed by the BJD leadership to re-contest elections on party nomination because of his apparent tilt towards the BJP over the last few months and his declining popular base in Dhenkanal was already a matter of discussion in political circles.
And this was why he, while declaring his decision to refrain from electoral politics, interestingly claimed, understandably for public consumption, that "no one has the guts" (meaning thereby that even Naveen Patnaik doesn't have) to deny him a BJD ticket to contest polls.
But at the same time, Satpathy hastened to add that he had "respect" for party supremo Naveen Patnaik, whom, he said, he would meet in a couple of days to let him know his decision of withdrawing from elections.
One recalls that Satpathy had courted controversy on several occasions for his views publicly aired, at times to the embarrassment of his party.
"I had taken this decision some time back. I am happily quitting politics. I have no pressure. The only pressure on me is my son's pressure. He wants me to stay at home and focus on journalism. Bijubabu had brought me to active politics. I am retiring from electoral politics on the auspicious day of his birth anniversary," Satpathy told the media.
He said that he now wants to focus on journalism. There is dearth of fearless journalism in Odisha as journalists have "sold out themselves", he opined, though, according to observers, his journalistic writings have very often been tailored into his political agenda.
Interestingly, in another statement in reply to a question, Satpathy replied that his wife Adyasha Satpathy, who heads his publishing house management, would not contest any election as he does not believe in "Parivarbad" (family-oriented politics). However, political observers wondered how Satpathy forgot that at one point of time, he and his late mother former Chief Minister Nandini Satpathy were simultaneously contesting polls in their native Dhenkanal district. Not only that, Nandini Satpathy even virtually vacated her Dhenkanal Assembly seat in favour of her son and chose to seek election from a contiguous Assembly constituency, Gondia. The mother and son fought polls on different party tickets.