BJD: Pyari ignored, cracks widen

BHUBANESWAR: Cracks in the BJD have now become wide open.Meeting of the BJD office-bearers and heads of frontal organisations at the party office here on Friday, where the decision was taken to give Odisha bandh call on May 31, has made it clear that there are growing differences between the top two leaders of the party.Sources said though Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra was present here on the day, he was neither invited to the meeting nor consulted on the matter. Rather, his detractor and party vice-president Damodar Rout was called to the meeting.Though Rout is one of the office-bearers, he was never called to any meeting at the party headquarters. This was for the first time in a very long period, the former minister was called to an important meeting. The meeting was presided over by another vice-president and Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei.Sources said Mohapatra had been sidelined in the decision-making process in the party. Rout told this paper that as it was a meeting of office-bearers and frontal organisation heads, Mohapatra was not called to the meeting.Mohapatra is not likely to take any active part in the bandh unlike in the past. He, however, declined comment on the issue. That Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has fallen out with the ‘parallel power centre in the party’, strategist and ideologue Mohapatra was doing the rounds in the party circles here for several months now. Mohapatra had also admitted this recently while talking to mediapersons. Everybody in the BJD is now waiting for Naveen’s response after his return from London on May 31.Campaign for the Athgarh bypoll had brought to the fore the differences between the two leaders. Unlike in past elections, Naveen took full charge of campaigning and directed senior ministers to campaign in the constituency ever since Mohapatra made it clear that he would not campaign.In what was perceived in political circles here as a clear sign of their relationship becoming sour, Naveen campaigned in the Athgarh Assembly segment for the bypoll with Rout and other senior party leaders in tow. The rift started with the selection of former minister Ranendra Pratap Swain as the party’s candidate for the bypoll. During selection of candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls, Naveen had also sidelined Mohapatra.