Is Jay Panda preparing grounds to quit BJD?

Baijayant 'Jay' Panda, the senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader, who is believed to be considering joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), took to Facebook to reply to his critics on Wednesday. He was on Tuesday attacked with stones and eggs by allegedly his party workers, while he was on a visit his Kendrapada parliamentary constituency to inaugurate a drinking water project.

“Forget stones and eggs, they cannot scare me even if they use bullets,” he wrote on Facebook, adding, “Despite vandalism and obstruction by a few, I did go to Rahania in Mahanga segment of my constituency and inaugurated the 10th of the 52 Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS)-funded drinking water projects. Each is of 1 lakh litres capacity, that is total 5.2 million litres of drinking water facilities for my constituents, and nobody can stop me from pushing them through (sic).”

BJD leader Tathagata Satpathy had earlier accused Panda of trying to split the BJD on BJP’s behest. Panda was sacked as party’s spokesperson last month for writing a scathing critique of his party and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a local daily.

The 53-year-old parliamentarian, considered as one of the most prominent leaders of Odisha's ruling party, posted a detailed reply on his Facebook wall along with a video and some pictures on Wednesday.

Panda, a leading businessman and an owner of a TV Channel, responded to the allegations that local party leaders were not invited to the function by writing: “As you can see from the pictures, the public was very welcoming and enthusiastic. The fake excuse used by the vandals, that local leaders were not invited, is easily disproved. There are hundreds of completed MPLADS projects all over Kendrapada parliamentary constituency and anyone can see that all the plaques bear the names of local MLA, ZP, Sarpanch etc whether they are present or not, as was the case here too. I always ensure that all are invited.”

Curiously enough, Panda’s post received over 700 shares and a whopping 45,000-plus likes; and, while there were more than 1,500 comments, there were hardly any ‘negative’ comments against Panda. Political observers though wondered whether the BJP’s online media was behind the surging online support—so that the perception of him having public support could be created.

There were a lot of “praises” for his apparent “good work” and for having given a “befitting reply” to the BJD workers. In fact, some comments were of him becoming the “next chief minister” of Odisha and the advice was to “leave the party”. The advice included to “join the BJP,” saying that the BJD wasn’t the right place for him.

Panda too seemed to be distancing himself from the BJD and perhaps preparing the grounds to leave the party. Claiming that he had been with the BJD since it was founded 20 years ago, he wrote that “for the first 17 years, we had strong ethos against goondagiri (hooliganism) and factionalism. However, for the past 3 years or so, many party decisions are being taken by babu(s) sitting in air-conditioned government offices, encouraging and giving shelter to such rowdy elements (sic).”

He went on to allege that “everyone is aware how even people facing allegations of exploiting women (and even murder!) are being sheltered. I have raised these issues of indiscipline in party forums too; in fact, at our last Parliamentary Party meeting in Delhi several of us MPs brought these issues to the attention of the party president.”

“Recently, another MP making similar points at a party forum was forced to cut short his speech midway. I am convinced the Party President will sooner or later assess these developments, and take strong action against the high-level patrons of such goondas,” he added.

However, many didn’t seem convinced with Panda’s account and wondered if the recent events only indicated his ‘impending’ crossing over to the BJP.