IF POLITICS is all about timing, then Pyari Mohan Mohapatra has an uncanny knack of seizing the moment. On March 7 evening, when BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik announced that the 11-year-old alliance with BJP had come to an end, it was the 69-year-old bureaucrat-turned-Rajya Sabha MP of BJD and Naveen’s chief advisor, who decided when to pull the plug.
If delaying the seat-sharing talks with BJP was one part of Mohapatra’s ploy, weakening the national party in Orissa was the other big idea. From the look of it, he seems to have succeeded in doing both with the rank and file of BJP cursing their own leaders for not backing out of the coalition soon after the murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in August last year. A shocked BJP is now crying betrayal heaping blame on Mohapatra.
As Orissa keenly watches the next move by Mohapatra, the state is abuzz with conspiracy theories of how Biju’s one-time secretary may be doing to Naveen what Chandarababu Naidu did to NT Rama Rao in 1995. The once muted gossip of Mohapatra becoming the next chief minister in BJD circles is the centre of animated discussions in Bhubaneswar. “NTR was hugely popular may be more popular than Naveen in his State. But in 1995 it was Chandrababu who pulled the rug under NTR’s feet leaving the Telugu politician in tears. So, I would not be surprised if Pyari unseats Naveen in a coup,” said a BJD MLA, not wishing to be named.
BJP leaders who have no love lost for Mohapatra, prophesise that the former bureaucrat is all set to upstage Naveen once the elections are over. “In this assembly election, Pyaribabu is trying to distribute tickets to his own men and those people after winning the election may show their loyalty to him rather than Naveen. He is orchestrating the whole game that would make him the next chief minister. BJD may win the election using Naveen’s name, but he would not be able to become chief minister for a third term. Once BJD legislators propose Pyaribabu’s name for the post of CM, Naveen would have to go,” said Golak Mohapatra, BJP leader from Bhubaneswar.
But the former bureaucrat, who was once principal secretary to Naveen’s father Biju Patnaik between 1990 and 1994, wishes off the speculation calling it 'laughable'. “Naveen and I are inseparable. Those who are trying to create misunderstanding between Naveen babu and me will never succeed. Nobody can create a division between me and him,” he said.
But despite Mohapatra’s loud protests of not being interested in the top job of the state, BJD leaders say the former bureaucrat now matters in BJD more than ever before due to his utterances and actions. In January this year, he gave the first signs of trouble in BJD-BJP alliance when he told a party meeting in Bolangir district that the regional party is trying to win all the 147 assembly seats and 21 Lok Sabha seats on its own strength. His idea of going alone in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Municipal Corporation also reaped rich dividends. In the last six months, he has been working overtime to rope in ex-BJD men as well as leaders from rival parties like Congress and BJP to BJD’s fold.
Partymen say if BJD wins the assembly polls in a three-cornered contest then Mohapatra’s stock in the regional party would be sky high and perhaps better than his protégé. “If UPA comes to power with the help of BJD, then Naveen babu may go to Delhi leaving Orissa at the hands of Pyari babu. After all did not Pyari babu once said political equations are always dynamic and never static,” said a senior BJD leader, who has been watching the rise of the former bureaucrat in the regional party.
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