While claims and counter-claims by warring political parties over their ‘genuine concerns’ over issues vis-à-vis interest of Odisha continue to jar on his nerves, the common man often stands confused over finding a ‘friend indeed.’
The Mahanadi and Polavaram issues, among others, have unleashed a jingoistic atmosphere where the ruling and the opposition parties in the State are at loggerheads with the one hurling accusations against the other.
The fact that the parties are in nonstop mudslinging over the twin river rows where the State interest is affected in relation to that of the neighbouring States of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh is very clear, but clearer is the underlying message it carries: Eye on rural polls.
The BJD, neck-deep in corruption and facing a clear anti-incumbency trend, has been slogging its guts out to emerge as the only party that is genuinely and single-mindedly devoted to the State cause.
The Opposition has been on a constant bashing for political brownie points and is trying to derail the ruling party this time. The Congress and the BJP are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the BJD is down and out in the coming panchayat elections, which is semifinal to the 2019 general polls countdown so that their position is consolidated.
The Congress is yet to rise above internal feud and dissent, while BJP is struggling hard to meet the gaps so as to run shoulder to shoulder with the Congress and the BJD in terms of its vote percentage and number of seats. In the last panchayat elections, the BJD had far outsmarted the Congress with highest number of Zilla Parishad seats (651 out of 854) while the Congress had got 128 ZP seats and the BJP had to make do with paltry 36 seats. The left parties had got 3 seats, JMM 11 seats and the Independents had grabbed 22 seats. So the forthcoming election is veritably an acid test for the BJD, the Congress and the BJP since it will play a significant role in influencing the mood and choice of the voters in the general elections in 2019.
The interesting part is the three principal parties have deliberately skipped the development and governance issues to woo the voters since they find that these issues will be by no means relevant at a time when the river disputes involves not just the interest of the State but have high emotional power being a question of the dignity and prestige of the State.
Though the BJD is left with little to boast of on development, given its all-round failures on major fronts like industrialisation, agriculture, education, healthcare, inflation, etc, the Congress and the BJP have also found little hope in raising the issues despite knowing that the ruling party can be silenced for its inefficiency and mis-governance. So the three major parties for the time being are in ‘selective amentia’ about ‘development’ much the same way they have been to two other key issues like law and order and corruption.
The whole of the Assembly session was wasted on the twin river issue. No wonder, the BJD had started stalling the proceeding in the beginning days by creating din over the river disputes and accusing the BJP and the Congress of lacking a true heart for Odisha’s plight and making attempts to politicise the issue ahead of the rural election in the State. Subsequently, the Opposition staged high-voltage drama in the House to counter the BJD. Unfortunately, a consensual approach to solve the river conundrum was missing.