The unease within the party has come to the fore even as the BJP is busy preparing for its conclave, to be held in Bhubaneswar on April 15 and 16.
A tweet seems to have stirred a hornet's nest in the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. The fissures in the party surfaced with one of its MPs, Baijayant Jay Panda, openly calling for an introspection about the allegations of corruption in the state in past three years.
The war of words between two MPs of Naveen Patnaik's party had begun on Tuesday, after senior leader Tathagata Satpathy put out a series of tweets alleging that the BJP was trying to divide his party. A day later, Panda wrote a long article 'BJD: Time For Introspection' in an Oriya newspaper 'Samaja', in which he, without naming anyone, subtly took on Patnaik.
"If we honestly introspect, we must acknowledge that all the above-listed allegations about the political environment in 1997, including widespread corruption and sheltering of powerful people committing criminal acts, are again being alleged about Odisha of the past three years", Panda tweeted the English version of his article.
The unease within the party has come to the fore even as the BJP is busy preparing for its conclave, to be held in Bhubaneswar on April 15 and 16. The BJP has made significant inroads in the state, and the recent panchayat polls saw its tally going up by eight times.
Satpathy had said that if the BJP succeeded in splitting the BJD it would try to go in for early elections in Odisha. Panda, however, indirectly blamed the party leadership for the BJP's increasing footprint in the state.
"Other parties are gaining ground because of their dynamic leadership, and unless the BJD's founder urgently deals with the issues outlined above, the party will struggle to face these challenges," said Panda, an MP from Kendrapara.
The BJP could cash in on the rift in the BJD. The party is already preparing its strategy for 2019, when both Lok Sabha and state elections are scheduled, to take on the Naveen Patnaik government which has been in power for 17 years.
Panda, in his article, recalled the days of Biju Patnaik and how the BJD came into being in 1997. "Last month, when the BJD's founder and president Naveen Patnaik announced after the panchayat elections that we should introspect, I was relieved. For some of us have been introspecting for three years or more. It is now less than a month till the 20th anniversary of Biju Babu's death. It is time to analyse the journey of the party founded in his name, both its phenomenal successes and its challenges," he wrote.
The MP, who had taken on Satpathy in a tweet on Monday, did refer to how Patnaik from 2000 had demonstrated that he was capable of firm resolve, showed daring and took unconventional decisions that led to a "growth of his image as a clean, transformative political leader."
He said panchayat election results should not have been a surprise for those who have been analyzing the party's evolution in the past three of four years. He alleged that key positions in the party were being held by "opportunists from various fields" and not by those who struggled for the party.
While he admitted that Odisha had come a long way in 17 years, he said it could be debated "how much more could have been achieved, especially with regard to investment and jobs."
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