Sycophants Get Priority in BJD

Bhubaneswar (Surjit Kumar Dhal): In the state power corridor, there are now rumors of the domination of two BJD leaders, Achyut Samanta and Manas Mangaraj. While the two leaders claim themselves to be the second center of power in the state, the party’s old leaders are also amazed at the short-term growth of the two leaders. They joined the party in March and April 2018, but in just one year, they have beaten other old leaders in the race to get closer to power. In March 2018, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, a former Congress leader and editor-in-chief of the state’s leading newspaper, joined the BJD, but coarnered in the party.  But reports from People say that’s just what’s happening.

In 2018, the three leaders joined the BJD one after another just in a few days ago. While Achyuta Samanta was an education businessman, Manas Mangaraj originally started his career in journalism but later joined the Congress. He left the Congress before the general election and joined the BJD. Similarly, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik started his career in the Congress but made a name for himself as a journalist. After being expelled from the Congress in 2013, he formed a party called Ama Odisha Parivar. Journalism is directly or indirectly associated with these three leaders. Pattanayak and Mangaraj are directly involved in journalism, while Samanta has a media outlet. When the three leaders joined the BJD, people hoped that Soumya Ranjan Patnaik’s status would be enhanced.

He will be included in the cabinet. But nothing like that happened. Fourteen months after the election, Patnaik was made one of the party’s nine vice-presidents by holding a lollipop of the Arts and Culture Department. But Samanta, the Kandhamal MP has been nominated as a national spokesperson. Similarly, Manas Mangraj was appointed as the General Secretary of the party’s media cell ahead of the 2019 general election. In addition, he has been appointed as a adviser to the Department of Information and Public Relations.

Among the three leaders, the two others can not be comparable to Patnaik’s oratory, but the party did not give him the upper hand. But Samanta and Mangraj are now close to the Chief Minister and his personal secretary VK Pandian, the so-called power center of the state. There are many cases against the name of the knowledge less emperor of education. In Patia, Bhubaneswar, after looting 100 acres of government land, seizing private lands and providing free education to tribal children as social worker he has joined the BJD. Today, he has established himself as the all-powerful leader in the ruling party with the help of billions of dollars from home and abroad in the name of land grabbing and the education of indigenous children. Instead of giving justice to poor people, who have lost their land to the feudal lords, the chief minister has included him in the party and is protecting his corrupt empire. He is thought to have the second power house in the party.

Similarly, Mangaraj, who has entered politics from journalism, joined the BJD and took over as the adviser of the Public Relations Department. As a journalist, Mangaraj aught to bring justice to the journalists. But as it turns out, Mangaraj is now promoting yellow journalism. He has established several media outlets to support the government and to mislead the public by presenting news of half-truths and lies. It is believed that on his veil instruction the Odisha journalists are attacked in several places. According to party officials, the two leaders (Samanta and Mangaraj) are now the right and left hand of Pandian, the omnipotent ruler of the third floor. One is believed to have been Pandian’s lieutenant by his money power, while the other is said to have come close in helping the state government to cover up the corruption and failures. Both continue to declare themselves the second power center. The party leaders are also confused about this self-proclamation.