When the BJD’s image has taken a serious beating, especially after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik betrayed his helplessness of not being able to act swiftly and decidedly in the face of corruption against his Ministerial colleagues, what he used to do before, various new and baffling charges are levelled against him and his Government by some of the leaders who have been rejected in the elections.
While Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan described him a Hitler and his Government as subsisting on Central grants only, former BJD colleague and Union Minister and Samata Kranti Dal chief Braja Tripathy slammed the BJD for having secret understanding with the Maoists and made monetary transaction with the banned outfits.
Earlier, Congress heavyweight lulu Mohapatra levelled a litany of charges against his arch rival in his own constituency and Food and Civil Supply Minister Sanjay Dasburma. From Pajero to several other scams involving cheating and illegal land deals, Mohapatra who lost to Dasburma in the last Assembly elections in the feud-ridden Brahmagiri constituency, got a modicum of success in settling his personal score, rather than being able to create a mobilisation either through his party or his own endeavour to dislodge the Minister from his berth.
While Chief Minister stayed steadfast in his decision to spare Dasburma, it is Dasburma who has had the last laugh. Mohapatra, on the other hand, has gone into the same oblivion as before.
Braja Tripathy like a few of the old BJD veterans thrown out of the party has been in the wilderness since long. His effort to resurrect his position by floating a new outfit Samata Kranti Dal also did not help him in his mission as the party’s performance was dismal in the last general elections. Tripathy was albeit a non-entity since the poor show of his party. However, Tripathy came like a bolt from the blue by his allegation of BJD’s Maoist link recently. like lulu Mohapatra, he too held a Press meet and claimed to have possessed documentary evidence to prove his allegation of huge cash transfer from BJD account to that of Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, now in jail. Meanwhile, BJD has rubbished the allegation and Maoist leader Panda too denied having got any money from the ruling party.
Though BJD’s and Panda’s versions cannot be taken to be true, all the same, Tripathy’s slur can also not to be accepted as sacrosanct in the want of follow-up actions matching the severity of the allegation. If like Mohapatra and his party, Tripathy too goes into slumber after spilling the beans against BJD, it would certainly be taken for granted as sheer ‘opportunism’ and unfair bid directed at sullying the image of the ruling party.
Petroleum Minister Pradhan too leaves imprints of his crudeness by his anti-BJD Government statements, which he has been doing off and on. Pradhan’s style of opposing the State Government smacks of his vindictiveness against the old ally with whom his party BJP ruled the State for two terms and later the honeymoon was rejected before the 2009 general elections at the behest of the BJD which had grown stronger and taken the stature of a big brother in the alliance for none other than the saffron partner’s own fault. BJP leaders and Ministers (say for example Mon Mohan Samal, Samir Dey to name but a few) had grown unpopular because of their involvement in several scams and tacit support to the BJD’s anti-people policies. Pradhan was a debut MlA in the first term of the alliance between the estranged partners in 2000. After a lok Sabha stint from Deogarh, Pradhan lost the 2009 general polls. Ever since, he has been making his presence felt in the national politics, rather than in the State.
Pradhan’s recent barb against Chief Minister Patnaik that he is a Hitler has not gone down well in the State as Patnaik is a highly popular leader and has been in the power for the fourth term in a row. Besides, a rejected leader’s statement against a democratically elected leader with huge fan flowing only renders him a laughing stock.