Bhubaneswar: People of Odisha have witnessed different varieties of politics. They are appeasement, family, caste, religion, tribal dalit and many other kinds of politics. However, a new political trend is now seen in Odisha. The parties are engaged in “hype politics” much ahead of the 2024 general elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assembly.
Both the Governing Biju Janata Dal and Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party are creating hype over their leaders. Take the instance of BJP. The saffron party’s Puri MLA Jayanta Sarangi all of a sudden revealed that he has specific information that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will contest from the Puri Lok Sabha segment in 2024. In order to justify his statement, Shri Sarangi went on saying: “Wait, you will see if my words are correct.”
Interestingly, the state unit of BJP remained silent. Party’s Spokesperson Golalk Mohapatra said that state BJP has no such information regarding the PM contesting from Puri seat. BJP’s Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi also said that she is not aware of the development and however, said: “We should be happy if PM contests from Odisha.”
It may be noted that in 2019 general elections also, BJP leader Pradeep Purohit also made a similar claim that Shri Modi will contest from Puri seat. Later, Shri Modi preferred to contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Similar was the case in BJD. The regional party’s Puri local leader and Shree Jagannath Temple Senior Servitor Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra dropped a bombshell by claiming that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will contest from Puri Assembly segment along with his original Hinjili Assembly segment in 2024. Naveen had last time in 2019 contested from two seats, Hinjili in Ganjam district and Bijepur in Bargarh district. He won in both the seats and retained his traditional Hinjili segment following which a by-poll was held in Bijepur.
Both the parties made hypes and none of them deny the statements made by their party leaders. Neither the BJP sought any explanation from Shri Sarangi for creating a rumor in the name of the Prime Minister nor the BJD issued any letter to Ramakrushna Dasmohapatra for taking the name of Naveen Patnaik. It clearly indicated that both the parties have silent support to such hypes!
Political analysts conclude that both the parties do not object to such rumors because a hype is created in their favour. The people are discussing the subject and the party’s campaign is made indirectly. If Shri Modi contests from Puri Lok Sabha seat, Jayanta sarangi said that the BJP will sweep in all the seven Assembly segments in the district. Last time, the BJP had won two (Brahmagiri and Puri) out of the seven Assembly segments.
On the other hand, the BJD also considered that if Naveen contested from the Puri Assembly seat, it would have an impact on the entire coastal region. Naveen has so far contested from Southern Odisha and Western region of the state. His contesting from Puri will certainly help the Conch party to checkmate the growing influence of BJP in the region, which so far remains a fort for the regional party.
Though the political parties are busy in making hype, nobody in fact calibrates its negative impact. Taking a cue from the development, many BJD MLAs including Ministers are also making announcements that someone will get a BJD ticket from some seat. This is encouraging indiscipline in the ruling party as well as in the BJP,feel Political Observers.
Take the instance of Western Odisha region, the fort of the saffron party. BJP’s infighting has come to the fore when Deogarh MLA Subhas Panigrahi publicly criticized party’s BJP MP Nitish Gangadev. The MLA alleged that Shri Gangadev has lost his popularity and brought a bad name for the party. When the party allows indiscipline to grow, such matters come to the fore.
Similar incidents are also taking place in BJD. The local leaders are openly against each other and making allegations and counter allegations much ahead of the elections. As the election dates come closer, more such incidents will come to the fore and create unrest in the political parties.
When in states like West Bengal and Bihar political violence takes place between two rival parties, in Odisha it is BJD Vs BJD and also BJP against BJP. This is high time to check the political unrest in parties. The leadership of both the parties should first organize their rank and file before going to polls. Otherwise, the state may witness large scale indiscipline leading to violence in the 2024 twin elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assembly.
