Can Congress stop Naveen making hat-trick?

The wind of change is blowing across the state politics. As widely speculated, the state Congress has gone for a major reshuffling before the electoral war. Undoubtedly, the change of guard is aimed at strengthening the grand old political party in Orissa where it is steadily losing dominance against the growing popularity of Naveen Patnaik. However, the way changes have taken place under the close monitoring of Congress High Command, created new equations in Orissa politics.

Let me speak the first thing first. It is first time that Orissa Pradesh Congress will have four working presidents including the Pradesh Head, K.P Singh Deo. Other three are Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, MLA Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra and the former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das. Apart from that, former Union minister Srikant Jena has been appointed as the chairman of the PCC’s campaign committee.

The Congress High Command is leaving no stone unturned to restore its lost glory in the eastern state. It was apparent from Rahul Gandhi’s two consecutive visits to the state last year. The AICC general secretary covered nearly half of the state and meet the tribals personally. Thus, the removal of four-time chief minister JB Patnaik and appointment of tribal leader Rama Chandra Ulaka as legislative party leader is considered major boost to woo the voters in the tribal belts in upcoming elections.

The three-member AICC team comprising Maken, Union Minister Narayan Swami and senior leader Janardan Dwivedi observed the moods of people and Congress MLAs in the state. Based on their findings, Union Minister of State for Urban Development and Orissa in-charge Ajay Maken proposed the name of Singh Deo, which was approved by party president Sonia Gandhi.

From the above developments, it is more or less apparent that the JB fraction has been overlooked to energize the struggling Congress.It is widely believed that the clean image of six-time MP K.P Signh Deo would help in their mission. Now the vital question, can Congress stop Naveen making hat-trick?

Under the leadership of Naveen, Orissa has turned one the most favored states for investment. For that, he took several hard steps when the BJD-BJP coalition came to power in 2000. He removed corrupt leaders and bureaucrats, although he faced sharp criticism from his party. In his second term, Patnaik focused on investment for the state. POSCO, Arcelor Mittal, Tata Steel came and money began pouring in. It will certainly provide an edge to BJD-BJP coalition in the campaigning.

Despite the great measures, the anti-incumbency factor has a role to play in the forthcoming elections. The reconstructed Congress will certainly look forward to take the advantage.
The pace of development remained slow due to violent developments in quick succession. The nagging Naxal menace assumed frightening proportions, leaving the state's preparedness looking abysmally poor.

The Naveen-government has completely failed to tackle the rising Naxal menace. Nearly 15 of total 30 districts of Orissa are now naxal-affected. These districts are Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri, Nawarangpur, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal and Jajpur. The last one is obviously Nayagarh.

The disturbing picture is that the growing cities like Berhampur and Rourkela, the major commercial centers in the state, are now target of Maoists. The state capital, Bhubaneswar is not secure due to the imminent threat from other parts of the state.

The Kandhamal violence has tarnished the secular image of Orissa. The killing of senior VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others at Jaleshpata Ashram and the aftermath of which led to killing of thirty seven people, most of whom were Christians, burning of 3000 houses and damage of 115 churches was an unprecedented event in the history of independent India. The incumbent government will not be able to recover from for sometime to come.

The infamous Assembly sex racket in which the then speaker Maheswar Mohanty and Information and Public Relations minister Debasis Nayak resigned and the resignation of Revenue minister Manmohan Samal in connection with another sex scandal will resurface in the upcoming elections.

The memories of 2004 elections are still fresh. Despite dual anti-incumbency factors both at the centre and state, Naveen led BJD-BJP coalition recorded record victories both in the assembly and general elections.

In the view of changing scenario, Naveen Patnaik can not afford to go to the masses with romantic candles of ' feel good ' and expect a cake-walk.