The faction-ridden State Congress is recouping and none but lulu Mohapatra looks to be the catalyst. The party, now in wilderness for being out of power in Odisha for long one and a half decades, must be hoping for a fast revival of fortune as the ruling BJD and the BJP are heading for a Congress-like disaster of rising internal feud as Mohapatra lobbed more bombshells on Friday.
While the ‘angry young man’, thanks to his intelligence gathering expertise and boldness, has managed to do much damage to the image of the his arch rival Food Supplies and Consumer Welfare Minister Sanjay Dasburma with his maiden Pajero expose, at the same time he has caused equal unease in the BJD and created splits in the BJD and the BJP along ideological line.
Mohapatra on Friday held a Press meet where he exposed a string of irregularities without naming the accused. The scams included raid of a hotel room in Puri and seizure of cash during some elections, corruption in a residential college in Sonepur and land scam in
Balangir. Mohapatra only left some clues that some highly influential persons involved in the scams are close to some ruling party leader (s).
In all likelihood, the current expose would foment more trouble for the BJD that is already battling to recover from an image crisis owing to the Dasburma’s alleged link with a chit fund firm and the Chief Minister shielding the tainted Minister.
Ever since Mohapatra alleged Dasburma’s link with the Artha Tatwa company and the CBI issued notice to the Minister on the Pajero issue, the BJD has been split with a number of senior leaders demanding the termination of Dasburma from the Ministry, be it straight or oblique.
The Chief Minister’s holding his cards close to the chest on action in Dasburma row also raised a finger at his much-touted stance of zero-tolerance to corruption. The issue also brought to the fore the fact that some senior leaders are ill at ease with the junior enjoying preponderance. The situation came to such a pass that the Chief Minister issued gag order to maintain discipline in the party though it was too flouted. The pent-up and anger and frustration of a handful of senior leaders remained no secret.
On the other hand, the BJP’s divide also came to the fore on question of the functioning of the CBI. While the BJP demanded resignation of Dasburma on moral ground and criticized the Chief Minister for shielding him, on the point of the working of the Central probe agency, the party leaders are divided.
While Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram unwittingly revealed the sluggishness in CBI probe in chit fund and mining scams much earlier, recently Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan rubbished the charges on the fairness of CBI probe while he had come to attend a function at the Ravenshaw University. But a day later, another veteran leader of the BJP Pratap Sarangi expressed his dissatisfaction against the CBI functioning in the chit fund scam.