By D N Singh
As regards chief ministers in India are concerned, Odisha CM now appeared to have smashed all the iron curtains spread by his opponents.
After the recent event in Delhi where he was conferred with a lifetime achievement award, Naveen’s image has gone notches higher .
Now the biggest worry for the main opposition party in Odisha, the BJP has a challenge staring at it.
2024 Puzzler
Whom do they project as a match to contest Naveen Patnaik. Individually and collectively as well, they have to project a face among the present lot, who?
Although there are quite a number of leaders in Odisha BJP, those who have enjoyed the thralldom of national level name and fame but the BJP central leadership has to work hard in selecting one who enjoys unanimous support.
Starting from the Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, there are a litany of leaders in the BJP. The party’s national vice president Biajayant Panda, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra, Bijay Mohapatra, K V Singh Deo, Aparajita Sarangi and a very few more fence sitters .
However, among the above lot, whether Panda, or Mohapatra, Sambit Patra or Singh Deo, all of them have been losers and Panda and Mohapatra have somehow lost a lot of the political sheen since long.
That leaves two faces and those were of Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhubaneswar MP, Aparajita Sarangi. And interestingly, both have different political identity and different way of working.
Dharmendra Pradhan obviously a national face, enjoying the good will and confidence of the BJP central leadership. As a union minister, he has delivered for the state.
Although Pradhan has not yet been a notable achiever electorally, but he somehow he has an all-Odisha outreach.
Politically Pradhan stands ahead of many in the state BJP for jacking up the image of the party in the state. Rather, he has virtually remained a kind of poster-boy with a good following among the cadres in Odisha.
Whereas, former IAS turned politician Aparajita although tries to cultivate herself among the people of her Lok Sabha constituency, but she seems wanting a lot so far as her cultivation in the entire state of Odisha.
Hidebound Mindset
Aparajita still seems IAS hidebound so far her political dispositions are concerned and that is where she fails to gel with people and become a common man’s ‘Neta’.
Rest other leaders mentioned above are mainly have area specific acceptance.
That leaves the BJP state ‘Prabhari” Sunil Bansal’s task tougher who enjoys the reputation of good electoral managr in other states like UP where Bansal played a good role.
But, Odisha is a different case where there has to be lot of integral political calculus to ready someone who can match up to the tall height of Naveen, who literally dwarfs other opposition leaders by yards.
