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Parties slug it out to claim Biju Patnaik's legacy

A year after his death, Biju Patnaik continues to give Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik sleepless nights.

Biju Patnaik's charisma is sought to be reaped at the hustings by his son, Naveen, who has floated the Biju Janata Dal and tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party to take on the Congress. And, given the fact that this is the first election in Orissa that Biju will not be around for, there is no saying who will corner his support base.

The importance of Biju's legacy was evident when the Janata Dal, which claimed it alone upheld his legacy, questioned his son's right to the same inheritance only because of filial ties.

And the JD is not the only one trying to woo voters. The Biju legacy is being claimed by all. In recent weeks, apart from Naveen Patnaik and the state JD, BJP prime ministerial candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and JD president Sharad Yadav have praised Biju Patnaik for making Orissa strong and vowed to continue his work.

Naveen Patnaik hopes the masses will see his father's appeal in him, that is if they are not already taken in by the name of his party, the Biju Janata Dal. "The people see in him a reflection of Bijubabu," says a BJD official.

It is not Naveen Patnaik alone who is promising to fulfill his father's dream. JD leaders in the state, particularly its president Ashok Das, are making the same claim too. "Both the BJD and the JD are trying to prove that they are the real inheritors of Biju Patnaik to gain the Biju vote," says a senior Congress leader.

However, a section of political observers feel there is no 'Biju vote', and it is just an illusion created by the late leader's loyalists. They argue that Patnaik was never able to turn in a victory for his party after leaving the Congress in the 1960s unless there was a strong anti-Congress wave in the state.

"This factor is not at all visible this time, nor is Bijubabu around to influence voters," the observers said. Patnaik had failed to lead the JD to victory in the 1996 election.

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