NAVEEN'S ARK IN CHOPPY SEA

'Non-alignment' in Delhi is proving costly back home as BJD is rocked by a wave of resignations

- Arkamoy Datta Majumdar

THE BIJU JANATA DAL'S CONTROVERSIAL decision to abstain from the recent VicePresidential election has not entirely been without self-harm. The BJD, as with all such instances in the past, justified it as part of its "equal distance" policy from the BJP and the Congress. But distances are lengthening within the BJD itself, especially between Naveen Patnaik and a school of thought that sees his pragmatism as a sign of ideological and strategic timidity outside, a contrast to the iron hand he wields within the party.

On September 9, former Rajya Sabha MP and south Odisha strongman N. Bhaskar Rao brought the inner disaffection fully into the public eye by resigning from the BJD-quitting a formation he has been part of since 1974, having joined in those halcyon days of anti-Congressism, "inspired by the ideals of Biju Patnaik". District-level politics was the trigger, a reaction to the local leadership being overhauled, so the former CM's side belittled it as an inconsequential event.