Congress fails to reap gains from BJD crisis

By: Nageshwar Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. This sums up the predicament of the Congress leaders, who are more busy pulling down one another than plan the party’s return to power amidst a crisis in the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar amply made it clear that his party should have taken mileage of the BJD trouble in Odisha.

“At a time when BJD leaders are fighting for power, the Congress should exploit the situation to come back to power and consign the Naveen Patnaik government to history,” Aiyar said on Thursday.

The Congress, which has been desperately waiting to bounce back to power since 2000, failed to reap much dividend from the ongoing crisis in BJD and an unstable BJD would have paved the way for political revival of the fledgling Congress in the state.

A group of BJD leaders, led by the party’s Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra had sought the help of the powerful faction of the state Congress led by Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra to split the ruling party and form a coalition government .

However, another group, which does not want to see Lalatendu calling the shots in the party, foiled the attempt by successfully convincing the central leaders that it would be a suicidal move.

In fact, a few Congress legislators were in touch with Mohapatra and assured him support in the event of a split in the party to form the government. However, they changed their mind when the Congress leaders at the Centre did not give them the go-ahead.

The absence of Congress support frustrated the BJD rebels’ ‘coup’ bid. With this, the Congress also lost a chance to come close to power-sharing in Odisha, observers said.

Although AICC General Secretary Jagdish Tytler clarified that his party never wanted to meddle in BJD affairs, people familiar with the developments, said the party refrained from supporting the BJD rebel camp, fearing it might impact its results in the 2014 Assembly polls.