With BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik not leading the party's campaign for the panchayat elections, polling for which will begin from February 13, the opposition parties have launched a "mis-campaign".
As Patnaik used to take active part in every election since he came to politics, this time round, the BJD supremo may not go on campaign trail as he has already covered all the 30 districts much before poll schedules were announced.
However, the opposition parties have started rolling rumor mill into action and several rumors are making the rounds. However, the Naveen Niwas has so far has not cleared the doubt helping the rumor machine doing overtime.
Even the ruling party leaders are not sure whether Patnaik will go for campaigning while the BJP has already announced poll campaign schedule of Chhattishgarh CM Raman Singh and his Jharkhand counterpart Raghubar Das.
The ruling BJD leaders consider that Patnaik keeping away from the campaign may have its impact on the electoral prospect of the party.Sources, however, said that Patnaik is unlikely to campaign in the three-tier panchayat elections.
Sources in the BJD said the Chief Minister is likely to visit Hinjili, his Assembly constituency, during the campaigning period. But he is unlikely to visit other places.
Patnaik's father legendary Biju Patnaik as a Chief Minister used to refrain from campaigning in panchayat polls just by giving a call to the people of Odisha to choose good candidates to the panchayats.
Patnaik, however, did not go by his father's rule, but campaigned in previous panchayat polls and also in urban polls.
"As Chief Minister has already covered the entire State before the panchayat election was announced, he is not likely to campaign again for the party candidates," a senior BJD leader said.
Meanwhile, Congress has criticised the violence perpetrated allegedlyby BJD activists in several parts of the State. In a memorandum submitted on Wednesday, the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to take immediate steps to ensure a free and fair election.
Stating that violence has taken place in several parts of Odisha, including Tarbha in Dhenkanal district, Bankual in Khurda district and Chandanpur in Puri district, a Congress delegation took the issue to the SEC.
On the contrary, BJP star campaigners Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram and others are moving around the State with full vigour and blaming the BJD Government for misrule.