The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is on the offensive against the CBI’s action in the chit fund scam and it has to be in view of the prevailing political situation in the State ahead of the next general elections. Gone are the days when the leadership virtually disowned MlA Pravat Tripathy by way of suspending from the party immediately following his arrest in the Arthatatwa Group ponzy scam. Now when MlA Pravat Ranjan Biswal has been arrested in the Seashore chit fund case, the ruling party has sprung up as one to defend him to the hilt instead of taking any disciplinary action. The party fears that many of its other high-profile leaders might be arrested by the CBI for their alleged nexus with tainted chit fund companies in the days to come. So, the question of throwing them out of the party is ruled out. After all, the party cannot afford to exclude so many leaders from its fold when it has begun taking a never-before aggressive posture against its political opponents, particularly the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In fact, the BJD is trying to turn the table on the BJP in the context of the CBI action terming the investigation agency as a tool of the Central Government to settle scores with anti-BJP forces. The BJD draws a parallel between the CBI action and BJP president Amit Shah’s statements during his Odisha visit a few days ago. Shah had said BJD leaders one by one would go behind bars because of their involvement in mining and chit fund scams. No wonder, the BJD now tries to convince people that the Central Government is using the CBI to defame the Naveen Patnaik regime. For the BJD, offence is the best defence!
Bijepur: BJD in lead to take sympathy votes
In tune with its offensive on the CBI action against its leaders, the BJD has also taken a lead over its rivals in the run-up to the Bijepur Assembly by-election. Though the by-poll is months away, Naveen Patnaik thought it wise much beforehand to rope in the family of the deceased Congress MlA Subal Sahu to the BJD fold to steal a psychological march over the two main opposition parties, the Congress and the BJP. The aim is to field Sahu’s wife Rita to ride a sympathy vote wave. Though it cannot be fathomed now how much empathy the voters would have for three-time Congress MlA’s widow, the Congress and the BJP have no doubt been taken off their guard. The Bijepur fight in effect would be a run-up to the next general elections as its outcome would have a major moral edge for the winning party to face the grand battle. If the BJD registers a victory in Bijepur, the BJP would suffer a loss of face as it claims it would win the by-poll on the strength of it having bagged as many as six of the seven Zilla Parishad seats in Assembly segment. In fact, in this situation, the BJP would lose its argument of getting 120 Assembly seats basing on its panchayat poll results and further inroads into the BJD strength due to an anti- incumbency factor against the Naveen Patnaik Government.
Mr CM, please answer why so many power cuts
The Naveen Niwas perhaps never suffers electricity supply disruption. So, the Chief Minister does not realise the problems of people owing to ever-increasing hours of unscheduled power cuts during the course of a day. Particularly during the last one year, the spells of power cuts have been on the rise, sometimes the period of inconvenience lasting three hours.
The people’s perception of the Government’s delivery system of such an essential service is steadily worsening. If the situation continues, it would adversely affect the BJD’s votes. The Government claims to have achieved a power-surplus status for the State; yet, the power cut woes multiply. If the answer is the problem with maintenance installations, why should the Government assert that it ensures good delivery systems in all servicesIJ The Government is, no doubt, answerable.