Bhubaneswar: What exactly makes a political party or any team to clinch success? The basic factor to win an election or a match is discipline and unity among the team members. The party or the team which remains united and faces the challenges from rivals with a common agenda only wins the polls. The dissidence within a party certainly reduces chances of winning the polls. Everybody knows that it is difficult to break a bunch of sticks, but very easy to demolish individually.
Odisha, which is going to face the twin general elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assembly, has been witnessing dissidence in all the three major parties like Biju Janata Dal, Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. The dissidence in the regional party is obvious because it has stayed in power for 23 years and the possibility of making another comeback is also bright.
The Naveen Patnaik’s party which has been facing the ‘problem of plenty’, has reasons to face the dissidence within because of its size and acceptance. There are MLAs in certain constituencies where one person is being elected to the Assembly five times in a row. This has frustrated the second line leadership which also aspires to become candidate in the next poll and therefore the dissidences are born in the BJD. Though there is dissidence in the BJD, but no threat to the tall leadership of Naveen Patnaik. Wherever there is dissents, Naveen resolves them through intervention and the party keeps going without affecting its electoral prospects.
However, the sad part of the dissidence is that it also exists in the two opponents of the BJD. There is no doubt that there is dissidence within the party in BJP as well as in Congress. While the BJD can easily afford dissidences within the party, it may harm the electoral future of the BJP and the Congress. When Naveen enjoys absolute leadership in the BJD, there is no such a situation for Manmohan Samal in BJP and Sarat Pattnayak in Congress.
After much deliberation, the BJP appointed its senior and seasoned leader Manmohan Samal as its President four months ago. However, Shri Samal has not been able to form the State Saffron Team so far even as the general election is less than a year away. Similar is the case of Congress Chief Sarat Pattnayak. Both are unable to set up their teams before going to fight the mighty BJD in the upcoming general elections.
The BJP in its recent Guwahati meeting drew a roadmap on how to form a government in Odisha and acquire most of the Lok Sabha seats in the state. While strengthening booths has been the main strategy of the saffron party, the leaders at the ground level here feel that the party cannot perform well unless there is unity within the party. Manmohan Samal is facing a unique problem that he has been unable to change the District Chiefs in the party as the posts are being occupied by the leaders loyal to another heavy weight. If the District Presidents remain loyal to some other leader than the State President, can he perform? This is the main reason as to why the State BJP leadership is finding it difficult to make a move. Shri Samal cannot put his people at the helm and has to work with the leaders who are not loyal to him. The end product of this situation is well known to the party.
When the party is fighting within itself, how can it face the challenges of the mighty BJD which has been ruling the state for 23 years? As a seasoned politician and known for taking on all groups, Shri Samal has already united many leaders like Aparajita Sarangi, Jual Oram, Suresh Pujari, Bishwesar Tudu and others. After years, Aparajita has been holding press conferences in the party’s State Headquarters instead at her office or residence. Aparajita was avoiding visiting the party office when Samir Mohanty was the party President.
This apart, the BJP has now installed state in-charge D Purandeswari as State BJP President of Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, the state BJP will get a new in-charge. He/she will also take time to study the Odisha situation and equations among the leaders here. Then the new in-charge will guide the state leadership on how to face the challenges of the BJP.
Anyway, the state unit of BJP is not in a good shape. Though the senior leaders shout at top of their voice that the BJP will form government in Odisha after 2014 elections, the ground situation indicates that the saffron party may not be able to repeat its 2019 performance of 23 MLAs seats and 8 MP seats. If BJP sincerely wants to oust the Naveen Patnaik government it must resolve the issues faced by its State President and end dissidence within the rank and file.
Similar is the situation in Congress. Though PCC Chief Sarat Pattnayak has been at the helm for about one year, he has not been able to complete team formation. Shri Pattnayak has only changed the 10 District Presidents and is facing a tough challenge from Jeypore MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati, whose wife has been replaced as the Koraput District President. Shri Bahinipati has given direct threat to the state leadership and may take the role of a dissident leader if his wife is neglected in the party.
Sarat faces a similar situation in other districts also where some people have been holding District President posts for several years. Any change in the district leadership may create problems for Sarat.
Therefore, both the opposition parties are faced with dissidences, and bickering, which they cannot afford to in the run up to the elections. If there is lot of dissidence in the opposition parties despite remaining out of power for decades, what will be their future in the elections? Can these parties pose a challenge to the BJD? As the opposition parties face the dissidences, BJD Supremo seems to have reasons to be happy.
