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In the name of Naveen Patnaik's father...

M I Khan in Bhubaneswar

As campaigning for the ensuing assembly election picks up, Naveen Patnaik, the founder of Biju Janata Dal, is going to the people in the name of his father, the legendary Orissa politician Biju Patnaik.

The BJD has the Bharatiya Janata Party for an ally, which hopes to use the 'Vajpayee' factor once again.

Despite the three years that have passed since his death, Biju Patnaik still continues to give sleepless nights to the ruling Congress. This is the first time the BJD is testing his legacy since its formation.

Earlier, during the last two Lok Sabha elections in 1998 and 1999, the regional outfit was totally dependent on its ally, the BJP. However, this time it is the BJD's ballgame.

The seat-sharing agreement has it that the BJD would contest 84 assembly seats leaving 63 to the BJP.

The BJD had earlier been projecting its president Naveen Patnaik as the chief ministerial candidate. But now the two parties have agreed not to project anyone as CM; that will be decided after the poll.

The BJD is confident that it will win more seats than its ally. "For that the party has to play the Biju card," said Panchanand Kanungo, a senior leader.

Another official, Ramkrishna Patnaik, feels that projecting Naveen Patnaik as the future CM would have been a good move. He is not alone in playing the Biju card. There are many like him who feels that the move would have translated into votes.

The BJD, unlike other regional outfits in the country, does not have a mass base. Nor does it have strong grass-root organisations like the BJP. Thus, the only trump they have is Biju Patnaik's charisma.

BJP leaders, for their part, point out that in the last Lok Sabha election the BJP contested nine seats, winning all; but the BJD, which contested 12, won only 10.

"The last election shows that the BJP has emerged as the number one political force," said BJP Orissa unit vice-president Prashant Nanda.

Incidentally, the forthcoming assembly election is the first one in recent decades that is sans Biju Patnaik's physical presence.

The importance of the late Patnaik's legacy was evident during the last two Lok Sabha elections when the Janata Dal questioned his son's right to it.

Naveen Patnaik, it is said, have almost as big an image as his father among the people. "People come in large numbers to have a glimpse of Naveen Patnaik. They see in him a reflection of Bijubabu," says a BJD political affairs committee member.

It is not Naveen Patnaik alone who is trying to use his father's name. Parties like the Janata Dal-Socialist too are laying claim to it.

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