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Revolt against Naveen Patnaik cleaves BJD

The ten-month old Biju Janata Dal in Orissa led by Union Steel and Mines Minister Naveen Patnaik has received a jolt following a revolt within the party in the wake of its recent reorganisation.

The party yesterday released a list of jumbo-size, 82-member executive committee, 31 district presidents and a new Biju Yuva Janata Dal president, which came as a surprise to many senior leaders of the party.

Subsequently Patnaik had to face the wrath of his own leaders. Two senior leaders voiced their protest against what they called "unilateral" action in reorganising the party.

Senior BJD leader Kalpataru Das, MLA, resigned from the party's general secretaryship, when another senior leader Aswani Samal declined to accept the new post offered to him in the reshuffle. Both Das and Samal sent two separate letters to Patnaik, expressing their anguish and shock over the reshuffle.

Das described the BJD president's action as ''undemocratic, unconstitutional, arbitrary and violation of the provisions of the party constitution.''

In a letter to party president, Das said despite being the general secretary of the party he was kept in dark about the formation of the state executive committee and other changes.

He said the party constitution clearly stipulated that the president, with the prior approval of the political affairs committee, could place under suspension any unit subordinate to the state council and any member of the party, and that the president shall exercise all powers with the prior approval of the political affairs committee.

Das further said, "Your action has caused resentment among the party workers and there had been a general feeling that you were being guided by a handful of friends who were acting as a Congress agent. These people in the past tried to break the Janata Dal when Biju Patnaik was alive".

The senior BJD leader alleged that these people who have joined the party recently, had actively campaigned for the Congress during the last Lok Sabha election and were now actively working as its agents to break the BJD.

Urging Patnaik to amend his style of functioning, Das said the decision of forming the executive committee, change of president of some districts and state Yuva Biju Janata Dal and suspension of six founding members without the approval of the party's political affairs committee were unconstitutional and arbitrary.

Das had, earlier, challenged Patnaik for suspending him from the party on charges of anti-party activities and questioned his authority in suspending him along with four other senior BJD MLAs.

The suspension order was later revoked after senior Biju Janata Dal leaders and some BJD members of Parliament intervened in the matter and persuaded Patnaik to reconsider his decision.

Das was also one of the four district presidents in the party who were dropped in the recent reshuffle and reorganisation of the party.

The senior BJD leader also urged Patnaik not to try to be a leader of a faction but lead the whole party and carry everybody along with him.

Stating that it was most unfortunate that the BJD president was being guided by the recently recruited "unscrupulous" elements, Das said he was constrained to say that the post of general secretary as well as other posts had become redundant and offered his resignation from the general secretary post.

UNI

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