Bhubaneswar: In the last leg of its adolescent years, the ruling BJD, which is in power since the last two-decades, will blow out the candles on Saturday to celebrate its 24th birthday. With a string of scandals weighing heavily on the cadres’ minds, all eyes are riveted on the BJD patriarch and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s ‘One-liners’ to lift up the morale.
Since 2015, the CM has developed a penchant to pop up one-liners to pep up the party cadres and leaders alike. Naveen’s roll out of one-liners on BJD B-day started from 2015 – exactly a year after ducking the Modi wave the BJD regained the power seat – when the CM declared that the party will make Odisha the most developed State by 2036.
In 2017, keeping in mind the rise of BJP in Panchayat polls, and when the poll debacle was linked to ‘Commission Raj’ in Odisha, CM Patnaik gave the timely call of ‘simple living and high thinking’ for his party leaders and cadres.
And on a high after clinching the State assembly elections in 2019, a confident Naveen Patnaik asked the party to conceive ‘BJD beyond Naveen’ while addressing the 23rd foundation day of the party.
He had then said, “BJD is not dependent on me. The party has now become a people’s movement. And People will choose my successor.” He sermonised the BJD cadres not to bank always on him.
Cut to year 2020. The grand vision of ‘BJD beyond Naveen’ seems to be in the cold storage. The BJD’s overdrive without Naveen on the steering wheel is apparently at the crossroads. The succession plan of CM Naveen Patnaik remained in the womb. Far from anointing or grooming any new inheritor of the regional outfit, the party is more inclined to piggyback on Naveen’s charisma and image than standing on its’ own feet and projecting any alternative leadership.
As per observers, after a platter full of scandals – from Nayagarh to PPE scam and Pathak-Panigrahi sleaze act – that delivered the adolescent blues to the party, senior leaders went into a huddle and solemnly declared that leaders and cadres will be taken to task, if they do anything that has the potential to tarnish the supreme leader’s image.
However, senior BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishra made light of the statement.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s image has been the guiding light for the BJD. Leaders and cadres have to follow the footsteps of our leader. The party has very categorically made it clear again. Never get strayed away from the guiding principles established by our party leader. This is not a new assertion. We do so every year, “ Mishra asserted while talking to odishatv.in.
True to the popular saying, ‘In politics, sunny days and rainy days can change very quickly’, for BJD, things are not that hunky dory in 2020 vis-a-vis 2019. Main Opposition BJP seems to have found the trail after sniffing the Nayagarh meat. And Congress has turned the heat on the government over the alleged PPE or Covid-19 equipment procurement scam.
“The Congress Party will fight tooth and nail to expose the corruption in Naveen Patnaik government. Our charge that on the pretext of Covid-19 management ministers and babus had embezzled crores, stood vindicated when the Lokayukta had prima facie found some sort of discrepancies in the purchase of equipments to fight COVID-19 in the State. It had ordered a Vigilance inquiry into the PPE scam,” said an ebullient Niranjan Patnaik, Odisha Congress Party President.
Latching on to the Nayagarh blooper, where CM Patnaik had to order a SIT probe after the self-immolation bid by the minor girl child’s parents, BJP has decided to fight for each of the 5000 odd missing children in the State.
“BJP will hit streets to bare the nexus between senior BJD leaders and mafias, organ trade racketeers and child traffickers. We have launched our padayatra agitation. We will reach out to the people. BJP will not allow the BJD leaders to get away after committing crime,” thundered Samir Mohanty, Odisha BJP President.
What Will Be Naveen’s 2020 One-liner?
With his image at stake, observers foresee Naveen’s one-liner on the foundation day of the party this year will be on combating corruption. The BJD patriarch will deliver sermons to BJD rank and file on probity in public life.
Besides, in order to make BJD battle ready to match a resurgent BJP, post the big wins in Telangana and Jammu and Kashmir, CM Patnaik will probably harp on how regional outfits are better placed in addressing regional aspirations. CM Patnaik’s speech will carry the top flavour of the farmers’ plight and higher MSP, when Congress is breathing down the BJD’s neck for supporting the new farm bills in Parliament.