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Bhubaneswar: Turncoats are having a area day in Odisha the place ballot fever is rising with events gearing as much as battle it out in 21 Lok Sabha and 147 meeting constituencies. Social gathering hoppers have by no means had it so good within the state, the place the exodus of leaders from main events started even earlier than the election bugle was sounded by the Election Fee of India.
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Curiously sufficient, poll-time migration started with two former ministers and a sitting MLA bidding goodbye to the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which has gained 5 back-to-back elections within the state and is meant to be the strongest celebration within the fray. Former ministers Debashish Nayak and Pradeep Panigrahy (the latter had been expelled by the celebration for alleged anti-people actions) left as they’d no hope of touchdown BJD tickets. Similar was the case with Chilika’s sitting MLA Prashant Jagdev, who had fallen out of favour with the BJD management after getting embroiled in a case of violence.>
This was only the start, and shortly the floodgates opened. The collapse of alliance talks between the BJD and Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, which had stored a lot of leaders on either side on pins and needles for days collectively, intensified the method of migration, with defections additionally going down within the saffron celebration and the Congress which is the third main participant within the state
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Nonetheless, it was most seen within the BJD, which previously had by no means been so weak to the phenomenon of ‘ayaram-gayaram‘. Distinguished among the many regional celebration leaders to have switched loyalty are sitting Cuttack Lok Sabha MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, former Berhampur MP Siddhant Mohapatra, former MLA Akash Das Nayak (each Siddhant and Akash are identified faces within the Odia movie business), sitting Jaydev MLA Arabinda Dhali and former MLA Priyadarshi Mishra. All of them joined the BJP and have been rewarded with celebration tickets to contest the elections. Whereas the BJP has fielded Mahtab from the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat, it has made Pradeep Panigrahy its candidate on the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. Siddhant, Akash Das Nayak and Priyadarshi Mishra have been rewarded with meeting tickets.>
The BJD, too, has been welcoming defectors from different events with open arms and rewarding them with tickets. Of the 20 Lok Sabha candidates that the regional celebration has introduced to this point, at the very least 5 are imports from different events. They embody former state BJP vice-president Bhrugu Buxipatra who, inside hours of his becoming a member of, was made the candidate from Berhampur Lok Sabha seat which can now witness a battle of turncoats.
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Equally, the Naveen Patnaik-led celebration has fielded Surendra Singh Bhoi, former minister and a senior Congress chief from western Odisha, from the distinguished Bolangir Lok Sabha seat. It has rewarded former Congress MLA Anshuman Mohanty with a ticket to contest the coastal Lok Sabha seat of Kendrapara. Anshuman is the son of former minister Nalini Mohanty who was one of many founder members of BJD and as soon as extraordinarily near Patnaik. Nonetheless, they fell out after corruption costs had been levelled in opposition to Mohanty who stop the BJD to affix Congress. Anshuman shall be taking over BJP stalwart Baijayant Jay Panda in Kendrapara.>
Among the many different turncoats nominated by Patnaik for the Lok Sabha elections are Parineeta Mishra (Bargarh), Manmath Routray (Bhubaneswar), Pradeep Majhi (Nabarangpur) and Dhanurjay Sidhu (Keonjhar). Parineeta was declared the ruling celebration’s candidate from Bargarh inside hours of her husband Sushant Mishra, a BJP stalwart, becoming a member of the BJD. The regional celebration has, thus, killed two birds with one stone. Whereas it has poached a key BJP chief within the type of Sushant, it has additionally taken the credit score for taking a decisive step in direction of offering illustration to ladies within the elections by fielding his spouse from Bargarh.>
Odisha BJP leaders welcoming new memebrs to the celebration. Photograph: X/@BJP4Odisha>
Patnaik has fielded Pradeep Majhi, a former Congress MP, because the BJD’s Nabarangpur Lok Sabha candidate. Mahji had received elected from the constituency on a Congress ticket in 2009. He had joined the ruling BJD forward of the 2022 panchayat polls as he didn’t see any future within the Congress.
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The BJD has changed its sitting MP from Keonjhar Chandrani Murmu with former Congress MLA from Champua Dhanurjaya Sidu this time. In 2019, Sidu had contested the Telkoi meeting seat on a BJP ticket and misplaced to BJD’s Premananda Nayak. He then converted to the BJD forward of the 2022 panchayat polls.>
Manmath Routray, a former pilot and son of Congress veteran Suresh Kumar Routray, was extensively anticipated to contest the following elections as a candidate of his father’s celebration. Nonetheless, taking everybody without warning, he joined the BJD and was given the celebration ticket to contest the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat, the place he finds himself pitted in opposition to BJP’s sitting MP, bureaucrat-turned-politician Aparajita Sarangi.>
Why so accepting?>
What makes the 2 main events within the state settle for these turncoats with out hesitation and reward them with tickets? Most political observers really feel that the BJP has been greater than keen to accommodate them as a result of it has been dealing with a disaster of identified faces to be fielded as candidates, however it’s a bit tough to elucidate within the case of the BJD which, at the very least on paper, appears to be the strongest celebration within the state. “Within the case of BJD, the one believable purpose may very well be the concern of anti-incumbency creeping in after 24 years of uninterrupted rule. That is maybe additionally one of many the reason why some essential leaders have left the celebration,” stated political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra.
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Nonetheless, Professor Rajat Kujur, a eager observer of Odisha politics, describes this sort of celebration hopping as not solely unethical but additionally detrimental to the well being of Indian politics. “Folks ought to reject celebration hoppers. If the BJD thinks it will acquire by giving tickets to such leaders it’s improper. The issue is BJD’s levers are being managed by an individual who doesn’t have a lot political expertise. He is aware of little or no about Odisha’s political realities,” stated Kujur, referring to V.Okay. Pandian, who just lately stop the IAS to affix the BJD.>
The entry of turncoats has additionally triggered resentment amongst BJD and BJP cadres in some areas. Just lately, BJD employees in Kendrapara meeting phase protested in opposition to the induction of former Congress MLA Ganeswar Behera into the celebration. They held an illustration displaying placards that learn “ imported leaders return”. Social gathering chief Narayan Pradhan agreed that such strikes can engender resentment amongst each employees and leaders. “Such choices are at all times taken by the highest celebration leaders who maybe lay extra emphasis on the winnability issue. However it doesn’t at all times work that means. When the claims of leaders who labored for 5 years to consolidate the celebration’s base in several constituencies are ignored, it’s sure to trigger ill-will,” stated Pradhan.>
Nonetheless, BJP’s Sujit Das sought to dismiss any misgivings on account of the celebration giving tickets to entrants from different events. “We’re certain that the leaders becoming a member of our celebration are taking the plunge after being satisfied about our ideology. We really feel sure that they’ll do effectively as celebration candidates as effectively,” remarked the chief.
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Ashutosh Mishra is an Odisha-based journalist.>
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