With Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik now switching on to the election mode following a rude jolt in the panchayat polls, the BJD’s forthcoming political game plan could throw up more shockers in time to come as highly-placed sources indicated Patnaik clipping of the party tickets from a good number of party MlAs and MPs in the 2019 general elections.
As the BJD supremo has dumped some controversial elements in the recent Ministry reshuffle to blunt a growing anti-incumbency trend, the ditto could come into play in giving party tickets to many incumbent MlAs and MPs in the 2019 polls to tide over the same factor at the constituency level, revealed a top BJD insider. Moreover, the leaders who are also at loggerheads with the party leadership could also be the first among the dropped candidates, the source confided.
A list of such seats has already been made and alternative candidates have been alerted to begin their mass contact programmes. The party supremo has indicated about the top BJD leader in the district-level hierarchy who is to play an important role in ticket distribution, said the insider.
A buzz doing rounds in the BJD circle is Pratap Keshari Deb, who would now to go the Rajya Sabha could, in all likelihood, contest from the Kendrapada lok Sabha seat. Since the elections are nearly two years away, Deb would meanwhile utilise the MPlAD funds to consolidate his position in the district. Significantly, soon after making Deb as Rajya Sabha candidate, the BJD supremo removed rebel Kendrapada MP Baijayant Panda from the post of spokesperson of the BJD Parliamentary Party.
Besides, Debasis Samantaray, Barabati-Cuttack MlA, and Sarojini Hembram, whose Rajya Sabha term is to end in 2020, could become lok Sabha candidates from Cuttack and Mayurbhanj, respectively.
Similarly, many such identified Assembly seats in western Odisha would see new faces sprouting up in 2019 polls, the party insider added.
According to the top BJD insider, the BJD chief will not expel any MP from the party at this juncture as this would deplete the BJD’s number in the lok Sabha. Rather, the strategy will be to keep the matter drifting till the 2019 polls and strip them of party tickets at the last moment (after announcement of the poll dates) in order to give such leaders little time for switching sides and emerging as a potential spoiler to the BJD prospects.