Impasse in Orissa Congress

D N Singh

With time ticking away before the next general election comes around, an animated suspense haunts the state unit of the Congress party in Orissa. The question is who is going to lead the party in the coming general elections against Naveen Patnaik; the man who seems set to do a hattrick. Rebellion against the incumbent PCC president Jaidev Jena is no more a secret. During the last one and a half months anti-Jena MLAs have been camping in Delhi, almost in rotations, demanding his immediate removal from the PCC top post. They constitute the loyalist brigade of former Chief Minister J B Patnaik, the octogenarian leader who had twice in the past succeeded in occupying the CM`s chair through back door politics. Recently he himself was in Delhi, reportedly having a round of talks with some foot soldiers of the Congress and Sonia Gandhi. Before that, the deputy leader of the House Narasingha Mishra had been summoned by the AICC for similar discussions. But, every time the response from the high command has remained the same `”whatever is to be done, will be done soon”. Though Jena remains defiant in the face of the ongoing campaign against him, he has not been able to hide his precarious situation. Even a neutral section within the state unit gives the impression that Jena is slowly losing his grip on the political decision-making process. After the recent debacle in the Municipality and Panchayat elections in Orissa, Jena was met with a lot of ridicule and a loss of Congress high command`s confidence. More the delay, the more desperation one finds among Congress party workers, which obviously provides the grist to media mills to dish out its own speculations. But all this is surely sweet music to Naveen Patnaik’s ears who has gleefully started preparing for the polls, unmindful of the bickerings with its alliance partner, the BJP. What must be worrying the Congress high command and Sonia Gandhi is that it is still difficult to comprehend Congress minus the JB tag in Orissa. For the media Congress coverage seems lacking in edge without focusing on old fissures associated with the octogenarian hopeful. J B Patnaik is not in Orissa for nothing. After turning down two gubernatorial assignments by the Centre, Patnaik must be fondly remembering the 14-year period in which he ruled Orissa. So, why does he not pitch his claim for another innings in the twilight of his career? Others, be it his loyalists or detractors, can do little about it. They know their limits and thus can hardly begrudge JB his pride in which he still claims to be the rallying point in the state unit of the Congress. The likes of K P Singhdeo, a former union minister, Sarat Patnaik, Lalatendu Vidyadhar Mohapatra or Giridhar Gamang are not the ones Sonia can settle on as a consensus candidate. Yet another fence sitter, Srikant Jena, who, according to party sources, is lobbying hard at 10 Janpath, can never be a meaningful alternative for the high command. There are speculations that the high command might replace Jena by a younger leader from JB`s sycophantic brigade, and offer him a job in the AICC. But JB, known for his hunger for power, is unilkely to walk into any such trap.