Nero Naveen

For the second time since he came to power, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik finds his authority challenged, with six of his party MPs d...

For the second time since he came to power, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik finds his authority challenged, with six of his party MPs declaring a virtual war against him. Earlier former union minister Dilip Ray 8212; who was summarily expelled by Patnaik from the party 8212; had gone on to win a Rajya Sabha seat despite the latter8217;s attempts to prevent this.

It is Patnaik8217;s style of functioning that has brought things to this pass. The demand for the removal of his nominee, Arjun Sethi, as the leader of the Biju Janata Dal BJD Parliamentary Party, was a mere ruse. The rebels were actually targeting Patnaik. His detractors were really giving him a taste of his own medicine. He had hoped to pre-empt a split by suspending three MPs last month. However, his intervention backfired. The dissidents lured him into a false sense of security and struck when the time was ripe. In the ten-member BJD Parliamentary Party, now only four MPs are left with Patnaik. This will certainly reduce his leverage with the NDA.

The expulsion of key political rivals from the party may have worked for Patnaik at first but with the number of the disgruntled on the rise, the chief minister certainly needs to rethink his strategy if he wants to survive. The message is clear: despite enjoying a popular mandate, he has lost the confidence of his partymen.

The founding members of the BJD, the very ones who had promoted him as the inheritor of the Biju legacy, are now baying for his blood. The chief minister made the mistake of thinking that he is larger than the party but Naveen Patnaik is no Biju Patnaik. And though he says that the rebels pose no threat to his leadership, he will be hard pressed to protect his flanks in the coming days. His detractors have, in fact, already made their next move. They have engineered a split in the 70-member strong BJD legislature party. It is true that the arithmetic is not in their favour at this stage, but who knows about tomorrow?

Orissa, then, looks set to witness another bout of hectic horse-trading. The trouble is that it is the people of the state who have to bear the adverse consequences of this in-fighting. With the chief minister engaged in battling his own partymen, the administration is in the doldrums and the state8217;s development is all set to be sacrificed at the altar of political expediency. It is time, therefore, for Patnaik to give up his politics of confrontation and learn to carry his party colleagues along in the larger interests of the state.