Bhubaneswar: As poll dates are nearing, the Odisha politicians cutting across party lines seem to have started practicing the jumping game. Hopping from one party to another has become name of the game that the present day politicians of Governing BJD, Opposition Congress and BJP have been engaged.
Odisha politics has witnessed many “Aya Ram, Gaya Ram” syndromes many times in the past. The state has, however, never before seen such a huge number of politicians flying from one party to another ahead of polls. These “Flying Objects” are making Odisha Politics ‘Stormy’.
The Governing BJD leaders seems to have mastered in the game as many of them have already changed their political affiliations, followed by the leaders of BJP and the Congress. The leader, who was a prominent one in the Naveen Patnaik’s party today, is seen wearing a saffron cap on his head.
For instance, BJD’s six time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab. He was the constant face of BJD in the Delhi Durbar for being elected to the Lok Sabha since 1998. He is also a sitting MP today. However, Shri Mahtab all on a sudden resigned from the regional outfit, of which he was a founder member, on March 22 and rushed to Delhi to join the BJP on March 28. He alleged that the party has deviated from its original commitments. This is not all, Shri Mahtab was named as a BJP candidate to contest Lok Sabha election from his Cuttack seat against the BJD’s official candidate Santrupt Mishra.
Shri Mahtab is not the lone MP from BJD flying away, another sitting MP Anubhav Mohanty from Kendrapara, who remained busy in his domestic quarrel for last five years without doing any work for the constituents, also dared to resign from the BJD. He too joined BJP.
Similar was the case of two time BJD MP and cine star Siddhant Mohapatra, who has been accused of not raising a single voice in Parliament during his 10 years membership. Shri Mohapatra was denied a party ticket last time from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat in 2019 for non-performance according to BJD. He too joined BJP.
Meanwhile, BJD MLAs- Arabinda Dhali (Jaydev) and Pramenanda Naik (Telkoi) have joined BJP after quitting the BJD. Two expelled BJD MLAs like Pradeep Panigrahy and Prasant Jagdev have also joined the BJP. Other prominent leaders like ex-MLA Debashish Nayak, BJD General Secretary and cine star Arindam also resigned from BJD.
Keeping in tune with the trend, BJP leader and former MLA Prakash Behera has also resigned from the primary membership of the saffron party.
The situation is Congress is also precarious. As the party is out of power since over 24 years, the OPCC’s former Working President Chiranjib Biswal, party’s ex-Minister Santosh Singh Bhoi, Khariar MLA Adhiraj Panigrahi, Congress leader K Surya Rao have also resigned from their party and joined the BJD with hope of getting a space in the ruling dispensation.
“Some of our leaders have been sold to BJD. They have no commitment towards the party which has made them,” said senior Congress leader and MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati.
It has been observed that while the BJP has been bolstering its strength in the state by roping in several BJD leaders, the regional party has been targeting the Congress leaders in nook and corner of the state who could be game changers in the ensuing elections.
As the party hopping continues, it is observed that it is purely political opportunism, to fight polls and grab powers. This has nothing to do with ideology and commitment. The leaders of different parties try their best to get a berth either in the Parliament or in the state assembly notwithstanding to which party one belongs.
While the party hopping dram continues in the state, there are many fence sitters still waiting to cross the party lines. The drama is expected to continue at least for one more week as the parties are yet to announce their complete list of candidates.
Here is an interesting reading on these “Flying Objects”. While BJD is strategically opting for leaders, BJP has opened its shop for any one and every one. It seems BJP is in a hurry to fill in the gaps. But it will be difficult for Man Mohan Samal, the most hyperactive President of BJP to utilize these leaders for political purposes. Shri Samal should keep it in mind that those tall talkers will not be beneficial for the cadre based party with commitment.
So far BJD has announced name of its candidates for 15 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 72 of the 147 assembly seats while BJP declared name of all the Lok Sabha seats. But, the saffron party has not yet named any of its candidates for the assembly seats. The ruling party has accused the BJP of not having sufficient candidates for all the 147 assembly seats.
As the party hopping game continues, both the BJD and BJP have started “mouse and rat” play and keep watch on each other who makes candidates list announcement first. BJP expects that it will catch the BJD rebels if the regional party announced the names of candidates first and the vice-versa. The BJD, which has kept the candidate list announcement process on hold, do not want to give an opportunity to the BJP to catch its rebel leaders. Therefore, both the parties delay in making candidate selection.
Meanwhile, Congress has not announced any candidates either for the Lok Sabha or the Assembly. Former Union Minister and Odisha Congress Campaign Committee Chairman Bhakta Charan Das, said the party will announce the first list of candidates for elections in Odisha by the first week of April.
While after Shri Das has become Campaign Committee Chairman, PCC Chief is concentrating at Nuapada, from where he will be contesting Assembly elections. It seems Shri Das is next to take over as PCC Chief.
As long as the candidate list announcement by the BJD and the BJP are delayed, the party hopping process will continue. Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Odisha will be held simultaneously in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJD won 12 seats while BJP could manage to get 8 seats and Congress one. Similarly, in the last assembly election, the BJD had recorded thumping electoral success winning 113 of the 147 seats. The BJP stood at distant second with 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9. The CPM won one seat and another was won by an Independent.
Looking at the level of migration, a political observer quipped, this time Odisha has seen “Migration at it’s height”.
