Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP welcomes BJD turncoats
It’s turncoat season. Leaders unsure about getting tickets from their respective parties are changing their loyalties without any care.
At least three prominent BJD leaders, including two former ministers, have joined the BJP, the BJD’s main rival in the state, in the last 10 days. Another former minister and five-time MLA Arabinda Dhali quit BJD on Saturday. “I will join BJP from where I started my career,” Dhali said.
Sources said all of them had stepped down from the post after being accused of alleged anti-party activities or losing their popularity.
The most interesting of these is the case of former minister Debasis Nayak, who was once a trusted lieutenant of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and served him as Officer on Special Duty when Naveen was a minister in the Vajpayee government. Four-time MLA Nayak started being sidelined in the BJD after he was first removed from the ministry and then denied the ticket from Bari in 2019, which sent him to the state assembly for four consecutive terms.
On joining BJP, Nayak said, “I was loyal to Naveen but he could not keep me with him.”
Former minister and current MLA from Gopalpur Pradeep Kumar Panigrahi has also joined BJP.
BJD had expelled Panigrahi in November 2020 for anti-party activities. He was also arrested by the Crime Branch for his alleged involvement in a job scam.
Apart from these leaders, sitting MLA from Chilka assembly constituency Prashant Kumar Jagdev, who was expelled from BJD in 2021 for attacking a BJP Dalit leader, has also joined the saffron fold. He was arrested in March 2022 for ramming his SUV into a crowd of mostly BJP supporters.
Prashant said, “What is the point of remaining in the party when we are not able to meet our leader Naveen Babu?”
It appears that the BJP is welcoming these defectors in the hope that this will boost the party’s prospects in the upcoming elections.
Given the acute shortage of recognizable public faces in the BJP, the party thinks the entry of Nayak, Dhali, Panigrahi and Jagdev will help improve its prospects. However, this may also prove counterproductive.
A senior BJD leader said, “Since most of the new entrants are discredited leaders looking for safe havens ahead of the elections, this will not have much impact on the BJD.”
BJD MLA Rajkishore Das said, “BJD will not be affected at all.”
While the BJD leadership has criticized the BJP for welcoming leaders like Jagdev, who had thrashed a BJP Dalit leader, the ruling party is also organizing a “Mishran Parv” to welcome leaders from other parties.
Congress also claims that leaders disappointed with BJD and BJP are coming to its side.
“BJD and BJP are in collusion with each other. Many leaders of these parties are fed up with both the Naveen and Modi governments at the Centre. They want an option. Many people are in touch with the Congress,” said Congress leader Manoranjan Dash.
