Former PCC president Niranjan Patnaik has criticised the BJD for its “rank opportunism and turning Odisha politics into a theatre of the absurd”.
The BJD is scouring Odisha from constituency to constituency looking for ways to poach from Opposition parties just to weaken the Opposition and win the elections somehow, he said.
“In a democracy, opposition represents an ideological divide and a set of alternative agenda. Naveenbabu’s attempt is to create a smokescreen around his party’s failure and divert public attention from important political issues like his failure to stop looting of Odisha’s mineral resources, the chit fund scam, the appalling state of law and order as exemplified by an unprecedented gun attack on a Cabinet Minister, failure in the industrialisation front and the fact that Odisha is now the most backward State in the country after 14 years of BJD rule and despite huge Central assistance in the last decade,” Patnaik alleged.
He said the BJD is trying to create a situation as if there are no issues, no ideological divide and election is about rank opportunism. This cannot be good for democracy, nor is there any statesmanship evident in what is going on. Elections are neither a beauty contest nor a WWF. But sadly, that is how the BJD and a section of the opposition are treating the people of the State. After 14 years in politics, the BJD is unable to find winning candidates in many areas and is, therefore, poaching for leaders from other parties. What Naveenbabu has done is not based on any principle or ideology. This is just Machiavellian power play.
Patnaik also expressed his sadness that the opposition failed to sort out its internal issues despite his repeated and timely advice and created an impression of abject capitulation to the BJD’s opportunist brand of politics.