Bhubaneswar: Apparently shaken by the sudden resignation of noted woman tribal leader Mamata Mohanta from the post of Rajya Sabha and the party’s primary membership, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik is now making desperate attempts to hold his flock together.
Mamata Mohanta, a prominent Kudumi tribal face hailing from Mayurbhanj district, resigned from the Rajya Sabha membership a few days ago. As the BJD had extremely poor shows in Mayurbhanj and Ganjam districts in the last Lok Sabha and assembly polls, Naveen is trying to regain his lost grounds in those areas. However, the 77-year-old politician now does not appear to be finding any trusted and dedicated aides to lend shoulders to him.
Most of the BJD leaders, who enjoyed power during the BJD’s 24 years-plus rule in the state, are now seen cold-shouldering Naveen’s repeated requests to “come together” and “work hard” to rebuild the party.
Though the Naveen has started holding meetings with the party’s elected MLAs as well as defeated assembly and Lok Sabha candidates to assess what went wrong in the recently held elections, he is apparently yet to zero in on the real factors. Sources in the BJD said since the former CM still has no love lost for his close aide — bureaucrat-turned-politician V Karthikeyan Pandian — no leader ever dares to tell him on the face that his over reliance on him spelt catastrophe for the party.
What has come as a major handicap for Naveen is lack of active organizational base. Though almost two months have passed since the party was voted out of power, it is has not yet gone for reorganisaiton of its frontal organisations. Even as Naveen continues to hold the post of party’s chieftain post ever since it was formed in 1997, the organizations now stand headless. As a result, there have not been any activities on the ground to put the BJP government in difficulties on political issues. The reactions of BJD’s leaders on different issues have been limited to postings on social media platforms.
Some top BJD leaders confide that Naveen Patnaik, who was one of the most fortunate politicians in India's political history to have enjoyed power ever since his jump into politics, still lives in a “glasshouse” and is “completely cut-off” from the real world.
“We need to be practical and work on the ground. But our leader still lives in a glasshouse and does not understand what is happening outside. A few sycophants who moved around him during Naveen Patnaik’s stint as the Odisha CM and accounted for his defeat, are still active and painting wrong pictures to him,” said senior BJD leader and former minister, requesting anonymity.
