24 years after Biju Patnaik confidant was expelled from BJD, Naveen welcomes his son back

“We welcome you to the Biju Janata Dal. Work hard for the district of Kendrapada. You have my blessings and please thank your father also,” said Patnaik at his residence.

Addressing his supporters outside later, Patnaik said: “I welcome you all to the Biju Parivar. I welcome Arvind Mohapatra, son of Bijoy Babu to the BJD. You all continue to do good work for Kendrapada district.”

Although the BJD now conducts most of its induction programmes at the Sankha Bhawan, the party’s headquarters in Bhubaneswar, its decision to welcome Bijoy’s son at Naveen Niwas in presence of Patnaik carries huge political significance. Senior leaders from Kendrapada also attended.

Bijoy, a four-time MLA from Patkura between 1980 and 2000, was known to be a confidant of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, the father of the current Chief Minister. He was known to be the most powerful person in Biju’s cabinet between 1990 and 1995 with plum portfolios like irrigation, general administration and parliamentary affairs.

Following the death of Biju Patnaik on April 17, 1997, Bijoy’s role was instrumental in formation of the BJD and bringing Naveen, Biju’s younger son, to lead the outfit. He, however, headed the party’s political affairs committee and opposed most of Naveen’s decisions, which is believed to be the reason for his expulsion from the BJD.

In 2000, when the BJD first fought the Assembly polls in alliance with the BJP, Bijoy was dramatically prevented from contesting the election. Day after filing nomination as BJD nominee from Patkura, Bijoy was busy in party work in Bhubaneswar when Patnaik, as president of the BJD, cancelled his ticket and announced Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, a journalist and son of a former MLA, as BJD’s official nominee. As things unfolded at the eleventh hour on the last day of nomination filing, Bijoy could not even reach his constituency to file a fresh nomination.

Bijoy then supported Trilochan Behera, a candidate from Trinamool Congress, who defeated BJD’s official candidate by a huge margin. Although the understanding was that Behera would vacate the seat for Bijoy, it never happened. Bijoy was subsequently expelled from the BJD.

Though Bijoy formed the Odisha Gana Parishad (OGP) in 2001 to take on the BJD, he failed to attract leaders from his former party to join his outfit. In 2004, the OGP fought in four Assembly seats in alliance with the Congress and managed to win two. Bijoy lost the 2004 poll; he never won an election since then.

Subsequently, Bijoy merged his party with Sharad Pawar-led NCP and became its Odisha head. He left the NCP and joined the BJP in 2009 after the former aligned with the BJD in 2009 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

After his defeat in the 2019 Assembly polls from Patkura, Bijoy, a national executive member of the BJP, has not been as active in direct politics. Recently, he and his son held meetings in Patkura constituency that fuelled speculation about Arabind’s entry into the BJD.

“After holding discussions with the people of Patkura and with the blessings of my father, I joined the BJD. I have been working in Patkura for the past two years. I am honoured the way he (CM) accepted me in his party,” Arabind told reporters.

The BJD is likely to field Arabind from Patkura assembly segment in the upcoming elections.

Amid talks of BJD-BJP alliance, the regional party is likely to seek maximum Assembly seats and the lone Lok Sabha seat in Kendrapada, which was known as “Karma Bhoomi” of Biju Patnaik, who represented the seat thrice between 1977 and 1989.

Last month, former Rajnagar Congress MLA Anshuman Mohanty, son of former Biju loyalist Nalini Mohanty, also joined the ruling dispensation. Nalini, who was inducted in Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet in his first term, was initially sacked from Cabinet and later expelled from the party in July 2001.

BJD sources said V K Pandian and BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das played a key role in induction of the sons of two Biju loyalists into the BJD fold.