Odisha: Is it End of Road for Naveen Patnaik in Politics?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been able to smash the iron curtain of the 24-year-old political fortress of the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) that has been ruling Odisha uninterrupted for over two decades.

It had become a legacy in the history of politics by Patnaik’s persona as a cool and composed leader.

Many believe that what allegedly became a waterloo for Patnaik was an IAS-turned-BJD leader who has been “shadowing” the Chief Minister over the past two years.

“The paradigm shift in the political narrative of Patnaik was allegedly the same man, V K Pandian, who allegedly hijacked power from Patnaik in a crafty manner, taking advantage of his age and his struggle to manage his health”, Rabi Das, a senior political analyst told this writer.

He further said that, “Pandian is now is the prime target of common men everywhere, right from tea shops to anywhere. People curse Pandian as a person who tactfully campaigned everywhere, isolating all political leaders, at times even the CM. This stoked a kind of revolt among the people and the party cadre against the former, ignited anger among people for BJD and by implication against the CM”

Regardless of the unpalatable language used by the BJP, Pandian was seen as “offensive and jocular” in his deliberations that were alien to Naveen’s school of politics.

Now that the BJD’s fate in Odisha has taken a nose-dive, and that too ignominiously in both in the Assembly and Lok Sabha, the time has come for Patnaik, 77, to distance himself from active politics and simply retire, feel some political observers.

In view of his age and decline in agility, Patnaik would never be comfortable in occupying the seat of an Opposition leader in the House, and after him “the party is bound to face fragmentation within and may be seven suffer a collapse in the future” said Dilip Bisoi, senior journalist.

It can be as well said that Patnaik possibly never had his ears to the ground to listen to the whispers and political grapevine, giving way to the “rot created” by Pandian who became an “incurable sore” for him, say some observers.

People within the BJD also confide that Patnaik simply hung himself by his own petard and is today in the middle of a whirlwind of uncertainties.

“We had no access to the party chief who was virtually shadowed by Pandian, who tried his best to isolate Patnaik from everything. As a result, none of us had the opportunity to communicate with him at all,” said a BJD leader, refusing to be named.

It is painful that time will never be the same for Patnaik, although people still recall his legacy with respect and remorse. The BJD’s conch symbol will remain in an epitaph only, they say.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha.