Over since Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan dropped the ‘early election’ bomb, the political scene in Odisha has suddenly become surcharged with a bevy of political activities. The ruling BJD and its main challenger BJP have swung right into the thick of action. Organisational parleys of both the outfits have gained momentum and war of words heated up even as allegations and cross accusations over government policies and schemes are continuously being flung at each other.
BJD, as usual, is at the top of its game while the central BJP leaders and minister have been making a beeline to send the right message that Odisha tops their agenda. Politics over free rice and housing has gone high pitch.
The battleground has even found new entrants with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announcing to field its candidates in all of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies. But one party seems to be in no hurry at all.
As is the state of Congress, it seems to have no idea what to do. While, elsewhere Rahul Gandhi is out on a long padyatra, here in Odisha, the grand old party is moving nowhere.Pradesh Congress chief Sarat Pattanayak has led the padyatra in the state but it has exposed more cracks and craters than bring in a ray of hope.
The performance of party in the polls, be the urban and rural elections or the by-elections, have been dismal. Party candidates have set a record in losing by-elections but no one is clearly in any mood to introspect. There is intense, unending squabbling and two of its MLAs have been served show cause for not adhering to the party line. Those who are active and rooted to electoral politics are being sidelined. It has been eight months since OPCC got a new chief, but he continues to function sans any state office-bearers.
To cut a long story short, Congress is going into a coma. And no one cares. There is very little sync between the organisation and legislative wing of the party. Senior leaders do not even see eye to eye. PCC chief Pattanayak is accused of not being democratic in his actions while he enjoys little support from fellow members. The state-in-charges appointed from time to time are clueless and have no grasp of the organizational crisis even as promising leaders are slowly deserting the party.
For a party that had ruled Odisha for almost half the period since Independence, it is a sorry state of affairs. Its fortunes dwindling, the party’s vote share has plummeted from 33.7 per cent in 2000 when it lost power to BJD to 16 per cent in 2019.
If Odisha actually goes into early elections, the party may not be in a position to even field fighting candidates for all the 147 constituencies. Simply because, it has stopped evolving. It does not appeal to the young aspiring voters and has no second-rung youth leadership in place while the irrelevant seniors continue to occupy the space. Personal and family ambitions have taken precedence over party interests.
At the core of the problem is the Congress leadership at Delhi. Odisha just does not figure in their scheme of things and the party’s unravelling is not surprising at all. The writing is clearly on the wall for the grand old party.
Siba Mohanty
Resident Editor, Odisha
sibamohanty@newindianexpress.com