Odisha BJP drops Commissionerate gherao plan; cuts sorry figure

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 17:

The Odisha unit of BJP that was supposed gherao Commissionerate Police today to protest against involvement of BJD leaders in the affairs of Utkal University has mysteriously dropped its plan.

In a press release issued by party leaders, the state leadership explained that they wished to give Commissionerate Police more time to take action. It goes on to explain that BJP would protest if the cops don’t maintain neutrality while taking action.

It may be noted that at a press conference on August 13, party leaders, in the presence of state unit president KV Singhdeo, had announced to do the Gherao and intensify the agitation against the ruling party’s involvement in Vani Vihar politics and the support of Odisha police to the miscreants.

While the state of affairs remain as bad as ever in the university, the sudden change of course by BJP is being seen as a result of central pressure by political experts.

Experts cited some of the earlier initiatives by the state BJP and how they were dumped unceremoniously after central intervention to justify their claims.

This was seen earlier when BJP national president Amit Shah played spoilsport on BJP’s ‘Mahasangram Rally’ by not uttering a word against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Former President and now Union Minister Nitin Gadkari held a secret meeting with the Chief Minister during his visit to the state last month, much to the dismay of the state leadership.

Besides, the state unit’s Rath Yatra on the Nabakalebara fiasco that was gaining some mileage for the party and had genuine support of the common men was mysteriously dropped midway. Strict instructions by central leadership was speculated to be the reason even though no state leader agreed to it on record.

The state leadership remains as confused as ever about its future course of action because of the central apathy. The larger question, however, remains: whether BJD directly managed to get the central BJP to force state leaders to change their plan on Vani Vihar issue or did the BJP central leadership for some other reason ask state leaders to drop the plan.