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Congress faces rough weather in Orissa

Bibhuti Mishra in Bhubaneswar

The opposition Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in Orissa is racing against time to sort out their differences with the announcement of assembly election dates at the weekend.

Janata Dal-United state president Narasingha Mishra has urged the party's central leadership to withdraw from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as the BJD refuses to admit the JD-U as an alliance partner.

The Congress too seems to be facing rough as the fear of the desertion of dalit vote bank haunts it in the state. Indications are that dalits could be veering towards the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The BSP has decided to field candidates in all the 147 assembly constituencies in Orissa. Though the party's winning prospects are slim, it could give the Congress and the opposition a run for their money.

Strengthening this view is the fact the BSP's rally last week drew around 20,000 dalits. In the past, the party's rallies used to attract hardly 500 people.

The response has come as an unexpected morale-booster to BSP chief Kanshiram and his deputy Mayawati who had attended the rally. No wonder Mayawati had talked about Orissa being the next target of the BSP, after Uttar Pradesh.

The development has rattled the Congress which seems to be fighting a losing battle with its battered image.

Realising the Congress' predicament, the BSP leadership is organising rallies in places like Cuttack, scheduled caste-dominated Phulbani and scheduled tribe-dominated Koraput.

State BSP president Nakul Nayak, a former MP who had left the BJD when he was denied a Lok Sabha ticket, sounds out the warning. "Dalits have realised that the BSP is their own party. Once that realisation takes root it will be the BSP all the way. For, the upper classes comprise less than 10 per cent of the electorate," he said.

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