Reacting to former State CPI(M) politburo member Subash Singh’s joining the ruling BJD along with three other party leaders, the CPI(M) rank and file here term it as nothing but “betrayal” and “opportunistic”.
Singh, who was a prominent CPI(M) leader and head of the party units in Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts, joined the BJD at a formal meeting at Naveen Nivas in Bhubaneswar on Saturday along with his three followers. BJD Cuttack president and Mahan-ga MlA Pratap Jena and three other BJD legislators of the district were also present when BJD chief Naveen Patnaik welcomed Singh and co.
Welcoming the turncoats, Patnaik said his party would be benefitted by the organisational capabilities of these leaders. But people in Cuttack district, particularly in Cuttack city, wonder as to what organisational impetus Singh and his followers would provide to the ruling party which has won all the nine Assembly seats of the district.
“The BJD was not in dearth of leaders in the district and there was no organisational crisis in the district for which the party felt the need of welcoming a left leader like Subash Singh, who had been a staunch critic of the BJD and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik throughout his political career,” said a young BJD leader of the district wishing not to be named.
Many others also feel that Singh has no political charisma of his own to give any discernible boost to the ruling BJD in the district. Except for the 3,000-odd CPM cadres in Cuttack, Singh has never polled more than 3,500 votes in the two Assembly elections he contested from here in the past.
Similarly, the other CPI(M) leaders here also feel that the decision taken by Singh was nothing but betraying those people of the city who were once rallying behind him at the drop of a hat. “He (Singh) had taken up many issues afflicting the poor and downtrodden but has now left them in lurch midway. likewise, he did the same to the CPI(M) and his well-wishers now also,” said a senior CPI(M) leader of the district.