When Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders Sasmit Patra and Swayam Prakash Mohapatra confirmed up on the Sankha Bhawan (BJD headquarters) for a press convention on Tuesday, they weren’t clad of their customary kurta pyjama and pant-shirt. Each the BJD males had lungis wrapped round them.
Lungi, a cushty piece of clothes of males in India — notably within the humid east and south — has wrapped up Odisha politics.
The rationale why the BJD leaders switched to lungis was revealed on the press convention on Tuesday (April 23).
It was the BJD’s counterattack on Union Minister and BJP chief Dharmendra Pradhan who took a jibe at Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik for a video during which he addressed voters in a lungi.
Within the video message, Naveen Patnaik was seen interesting to voters, with ‘joda sankhas’ (twin conch shells). The conch is a logo of the BJD and the 2 shells have been meant to symbolise the MP and MLA candidates of the celebration.
Odisha shall be voting concurrently for its 147-seat Meeting together with the election for the 21 Lok Sabha seats. Therefore, Naveen Patnaik’s ‘joda sankhas’ signified his celebration’s stake in each the elections.
Not simply Naveen Patnaik, a video of his shut aide VK Pandian posing with the ‘joda sankhas’ surfaced too. Nonetheless, Pandian — an individual of Tamil origin — wasn’t in a lungi.
DHARMENDRA PRADHAN’S JIBE AT VK PANDIAN
Individuals generally put on lungi in Odisha however inside the confines of their properties. The lungi is not a social apparel, like within the southern states, and no respectable Odia is usually seen on the streets in it.
Reacting to the video of Naveen Patnaik, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan made a press release concerning the Chief Minister’s public look in a lungi.
“You all have seen our Naveen Babu, an elderly person, in lungis and joda sankhas (twin conches). There is a gumasta (an agent) who is getting so many things done. At least, he should get an elderly person like Naveen Babu dressed up in a pyjama and kurta. I have respect for an elderly person like Naveen Babu. Should he have done this to an elderly person?,” mentioned Dharmendra Pradhan at an election rally in Jharsuguda on Tuesday (April 23).
Whereas Pradhan didn’t title Naveen Patanaik’s aide VK Pandian, his “agent” jibe was undoubtedly directed at him.
Pandian, a former IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, has over time turn out to be Patanaik’s right-hand man. Seen as working the present for Naveen Patnaik, many in Odisha contemplate Pandian an “outsider” who’s making an attempt to inherit Naveen babu’s legacy.
BJD HITS BACK AT DHARMENDRA PRADHAN
The jibe of the Union Minister was one which prompted the BJD to embrace the lungi and hit again at Dharmendra Pradhan.
“The handloom sector has its own economy in the state. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has lampooned the handloom sector and the Sambalpuri lungi. He has hurt the culture of Odisha and Sambalpur,” mentioned BJD chief Sasmit Patra on the Tuesday presser.
Swayam Prakash, the BJD IT cell head, took to X to tell that Naveen Patnaik was sporting a Sambalpuri lungi within the video, and protested towards the “insult of culture and tradition by Dharmendra Pradhan” and demanded an apology from him.
“Biju Janata Dal will never tolerate such humiliation of Sambaluri Lungi,” added Swayam Prakash.
BJD chief Sasmit Patra additionally burdened the effectiveness of the BJP’s ‘joda sankha’ marketing campaign forward of the twin-polls.
VK PANDIAN, THE ‘OUTSIDER’ IN ODISHA POLITICS?
The Biju Janata Dal in Odisha is campaigning exhausting to retain energy within the meeting and to emerge forward of the Bharatiya Janta Social gathering within the Lok Sabha polls.
And on the helm of the marketing campaign is the previous bureaucrat VK Pandian, following his chief minister Biju Patnaik. In truth, Pandian, the Tamil Nadu native, is among the 40-star campaigners the BJD has named for the upcoming polls.
VK Pandian, who was the non-public secretary to the Odisha CM, formally joined the BJD in 2023, after voluntarily retiring from the civil service.
Pandian was additionally tasked with the graceful implementation of 5T (Transformational Initiatives) and ‘Nabin Odisha’ initiatives of the Odisha Authorities.
He spearheaded the Odisha authorities’s ‘Mo Sarkar’ scheme too, which introduced public companies to the doorsteps.
Nonetheless, Pandian’s rise to the highest has not been devoid of “outsider” remarks.
Like Dharmendra Pradhan blamed “a gumasta (an agent)” who was behind so many issues, together with dressing up Naveen Patnaik in a lungi, the Congress too had earlier flagged Pandian’s id.
“Outsiders in politics, mining business – outsiders, bureaucracy – full of only outside people… Odisha for the Odias, by the Odias and of the Odias. Odias wants Odisha back,” mentioned Congress’ Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar in January.
Not too long ago, the BJP additionally attacked the BJD for “unnecessary security benefits” that Pandian, who holds a Cupboard rank in Odisha, loved, after an RTI question revealed {that a} squad of 74 personnel guarded him.
BJP nationwide president J P Nadda had earlier (June 2023) alleged that the Odisha administration had been “outsourced to bureaucracy”, hinting at Pandian and his seat subsequent to Naveen Patnaik.
That is precisely the place the lungi video of Naveen Patanaik comes helpful for the BJP. The celebration has used the single-piece of material to focus on how an “outsider” is influencing the Chief Minister’s selections and choices.
