EPRA International Journal of Environmental Economics, Commerce and Educational Management

(Annual Peer reviewed, refereed, Indexed International Journal), Vol-2, April-March, 2015, ISI,
Impact Factor: 0.815, ISSN: 2348-814X, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. India, pp.115-123.

FACTIONAL POLITICS IN AN INDIAN STATE: ODISHA

Dr. Dasarathi Bhuiyan, Faculty Member
P.G. Department of Political Science, Berhampur University
No political party in Odisha is free from factionalism. All most all the parties weather it
is the regional or national political party in Odisha has been plagued by factionalism. The splits
in the Odisha Congress have been influenced by the dissensions and divisions within the Indian
National Congress. After the resignation of Gajapati Ministry on 19th July, 1937 Sri Biswanath
Das of Congress formed his ministry with Nityaananda Kanungo and Bodharam Dubey as
ministers. But the performance of the Congress Ministry suffered due to factionalism. The
controversy began from the dates of selection of the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
Paandit Nilakantha Das, who was the Chairman of the P.C.C. Chairman, had a mind to head the
Ministry. Due to his antiparty activities he was removed from the Presdientship of the P.C.C.
The anti-ministerial group tried to harm the reputation of the ministry and brought allegation
against the ministry before the Congress High Command. Nilakamtha Das, Godavarish Mishra
and Dibakar Patnaik were the main cream of the crop of the group and they brought allegations
against Biswanath Das Ministry and his colleagues. Subsequent enquiry made by the High
Command in March 1938 declared that the allegations were baseless. In another attempt the
Nilakamtha Das- Godavarish Mishra group made an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Pradesh
Congress Committee. Mr Biswasray from Koraput district was elected as the P.C.C. Chief
defeating Godavarish Mishra. He was sponsored by the Mahatab group. The Das-Mishra group
steadily lost ground and fell from the grace of the party High Command due to Mahatabs
efforts. Mahatab became very powerful because of his proximity with the Central leadership and
was elected to the Congress Working Committee. Later on Harekrushna Mahatab became the
President of P.C.C. But the parliamentary board, in order to bring reconciliation between the two
groups asked Mahatab to resign from the Presidentship of the P.C.C. and Gopabandhu
Choudhury was selected as the next President. However, the dispute was not solved and
allegations against the ministry again began and twenty one charges were brought against the
Ministry before Sardar Ballavbhai Patel, President of the Congress Parliamentary Board. The
complaints were referred to Rajendra Prasad, a member of the Board for investigation. He visited
Odisha twice in this regard and scrutinized all the related documents. He lastly submitted his
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statement of final report to Sardar Patel. Sardar Patel placed the report before the Congress
Working Committee for final decision. The working Committee asked the Secretary of the
Odisha P.C.C. seek apology to the Chief Minister and to resign immediately from Secretariship.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad in his report also remarked that the charges were made hastily. This event
discloses the examples of group rivalry in Congress party during the pre-independence period.
The Mahatab group replaced the Satyabadi group in Odisha politics. Mahatab who
formed the cabinet after 1946 elections completely ignored the senior, experience and traditional
leaders of the party like Nilakantha Das, Godavarish Mishra and Biswanath Das. Another major
political development during this period was the impact of separation of the Congress Socialists
from the All India Congress Party which had its echo in Odisha Congress. The Congress
Socialists under the leadership of Sarangdhar Das, Surendra Nath Dwivedi and Naba Krishna
Choudhury formed a separate entity and laid emphasis on agitation politics directed against the
feudal elements.
Under the guidance of H.K.Mahatab and Biswanath Das the Congress did fairly well in
the election of 1946. Very soon, intrigues started in the party to oust Mahatab from power.
Prominent among them were Gopabandhu Choudhury, elder brother of Nabakrushna Choudhury
and Nityananda Kanungo. In 1949 joined the Central Cabinet as Minister of Commerce and
Industry in the Nehru Cabinet. During that time, Biswanath Das was a formidable claimant by
virtue of his seniority. But the choice of Dr. Mahatab undoubtedly was for Nabakrushna
Choudhury, because Mahatab wanted a sort of dummy who would be too willing to step down in
the event of his return to the state politics from Delhi. Prime Minister Harekrushna Mahatab
resigned on 12th May 1950 and Nabakrushna Choudhury therefore was appointed as the Prime
Minister. Ironically, Mahatabs political calculation misfired when he wanted N.K.Choudhury to
work as his dummy; Choudhury soon developed a personality of his own and on many matters
refused to toe Mahatabs lines. That gradually turned their friendship into enmity. Being strongly
influenced by the Bhoodan movement, led by Binoba Bhave, Chief Minister Nabakrushna
Choudhury actively supported the movement and took active interest for the upliftment of
Ashram Schools for Adivasis. The worst affected person of this movement was no other than Dr.
Mahatab as he was considered to be the Zamidar of Agarapada possessing colossal acre of lands.
Mahatab came to the conclusion that Choudhury had betrayed his trust and joined hands with the
conservative in the party to oust him completely from public life. Mahatabs role was intriguing
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in as much as he exhorted his trusted lieutenants to start troubles for Choudhury is openly
criticized the Chief Minister, his policies and programmes. The dissidents also exposed the
failure of the government in regard to the handing of the devastations caused by the
unprecedented floods of 1955 and the agitation against the decision of the Government of India
on the State Reorganization Commission recommendations giving Sareikela and Kharswan, two
Oriya-speaking tracts, to the State of Bihar. Some Congress M.L.As openly advocated change
leadership. This paved the way for Mahatab taking over as the Chief Minister in October 1956.
The Mahatab Minister continued till the second General Electrons of 1957.
In 1959 the coalition Ministry headed by Mahtab marked the emergence of intense
factionalism among the leaders in the Congress Party. Mahtabs coalition experiment was
opposed by Biju Patnaik, Nilamani Routray and Biren Mitra. Mahtab was representing the Old
Guard in the Congress and Biju Patnaik was leading the Young Turks. Later, Biju Patnaik
successfully convinced the Congress High Command for the discontinuance of the coalition
experiments of Mahtab with Jharkhand and the Ganatantra Parishad. Mahtab was severely
criticized for the support of Ganatantra Parishad to his Ministry. Through supporters of
government did not share political powers, some of them definitely shared the benefit of power,
especially the Jharkhand Party. The working majority which was manipulated by Mahatab could
not be continued beyond May 1959 resulting in the formation of the Congress-Ganatantra
Parishad Coalition Ministry on 22 May 1959.
Mr Biju Patnaik who wanted to become a minister as early as February 1952 was one of
the main architects of the coalition of 1959, and it would probably not be an exaggeration to say
that he sincerely wanted to become a minister in the coalition. Mahatab wanted to use him as a
financier, keeping him away from power, so he took the plea that Singh Deo was opposed to any
change of ratio in the Congress and Ganatantra Parishad. Thus, the coalitional regime started
with the creation of factions inside the party. Ultimately Biju Patnaik convinced the Congress
High Command of the futility of the coalition regime from the point of view of Odishas
improvement as also the prospects of the Congress party. He created a situation in which
Mahatabs right hand man Mr Banamali Patnaik who was the president of the Utkal Pradesh
Congress Committee, lost the confidence of the party, and Mr Biju Patnaik occupied that
position. The party, under his leadership expressed the desire to break the coalition and seek a
fresh mandate from the electorate. The government resigned on 21 February 1961 and the first
spell of president rule was imposed on Odisha on February, 1961.
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In the mid-term election to the State Legislative Assembly in June 1961 the Congress
Party under Biju Patnaiks dynamic leadership won 82 seats. Mahatab remained apparently aloof
from active politics during the election due to his opposition to Biju Patnaiks leadership. It was,
however, alleged that he was instrumental in setting up Independent candidates in the election.
Biju Patnaik had a comfortable majority support in the Assembly as the Chief Minister but was
called upon to resign under the Kamraj Plan and. Biren Mitra, the Deputy Chief Minister in his
Cabinet succeeded him as the Chief Minister on 2 October 1963 and continued in the position till
20 February 1965. The first organized opposition in the Congress was manifested at the time of
choosing a successor to Patnaik as Chief Minister. Pabitra Mohan Pradhan unsuccessfully
contested for leadership of the Congress Legislature Party against Biren Mitra. Soon after Mitra
assumed office, the Mahatab group triggered the student movement and took active role in
ousting the Biju-Biren Ministry. Hurt emotionally and prompted by a desire to get rid of the
administrative burden, Biren Mitra took unilateral decision to resign without consulting the
party. To revive the Congress image, the succession to Biren Mitra was fell on to the head of
Sadasiva Tripathy.
In Odisha the image of the Congress suffered in the 1967 elections. Even after the
defection of Mahatab group the Congress factionalism had its manifestation between the two
groups, one led by Sadasiva Tripathy, the Chief Minister and other group led by Patnaik-Mitra
combination. While the Tripathy group had the sympathy of the Congress High Command, the
Patnaik group was in full control of the organization and the majority of the legislators at the
state level. Through Tripathy had taken over the legislative leadership, for all practical purposes
Patnaik and Mitra continued to manage the party affairs in the state.
The controversial presidential election of August 1969 and the subsequent rift in the
Congress Party which ultimately culminated in the split of the party had its repercussions in all
the States. The followers of Biju Patnaik voted for the official Congress candidate Sanjiva
Reddy while others exercised their conscience vote in favour of V.V.Giri who was regarded as
Indira Gandhis man. The result was in favour of Giri and won the election. That time, Biju
Patnaik fell from the grace of the Prime Minister because of his pro-Sanjiva Reddy stand. As
Biju Patnaik was defeated in the Assembly poll, he sought election to the Rajya Sabha. The party
recommended his name to the Central Parlimentary Board which rejected it and selected
Narayan Patra as the partys candidate though his name was not sent by the P.C.C. The followers
4

of Patnaik revolted and set up T.Sanganna as their candidate. The outcome was a setback for the
Congress(R) as both the official nominees Patra and rebel candidate Sanganna were defeated.
Ultimately, the High Command accused Patnaik and suspended him on May 24, 1970 along with
a few of his followers. Biju Patnaik, therefore, left Congress and formed his state-based party
Utkal Congress.
In the mid-term elections of 1971 no single party was in position to form the
Government. The Odisha congress was, to the excitement of all, was divided into four groups Biju Patnaiks Utkal Congress, Mahatabs Jana Congress, Jagajivan Rams Ruling Congress and
Nijalingapas own version of Congress.
Being assured of the support of the CPI and independents, Nandini Satapaty formed her
second ministry on March 1974. Towards the end of June, 1975, the Congress Party was divided
into clear-cut factions, one led by B.B.Das and the other by the Chief Minister Satapathy.
Though the former had no whole-hearted support from quite a large number of MLAs, still then
the bossism of Satapathy caused hostility among a large number of MLAs and they helped Das
in his fight against Satapathy. But serious intra Party feud broke out over Satapathys virtual
non-cooperation with the reconstituted state Youth Congress that enjoyed the patronage of the
high command. The youth Congress leaders like Janaki Ballav Patnaik and Ramachandra Rath
instigated five youth Ministers of Odisha such as Sri Ballav Panigrahy, Kanhu Charan Lenka,
Jagannath Patnaik, Harihar Karan and Saikh Matalub Ali revolted against Chief Minister Mrs.
Nandini Satapathy. All these dissidents demanded for change of Congress legislative party
leadership and their demand became strident as charges of corruption against the highest
political authority in the state, came out in a section of Press. There was also criticism of her
style of functioning as Chief Minister and her increasing dependence on the C.P.I. The antiSatapathy faction in the Congress with the knowledge of the Congress High Command created a
political situation which led to the resignation of the Chief Minister at the instance of the Central
party leadership on 16 December 1976. This led to the formation of the new Congress Ministry
leaded by Binayak Acharya on 29 December, 1976. The Acharya Ministry had stated for the
shortest period of only 123 days to prcised. His party colleagues who brought him to power
soon got disappointed because he was unable to keep the bright image of the Congress
Government in the changing political scenario. The Satapathy faction party men continued to
In Odisha fresh elections to the State Legislative Assembly were held on 10 June 1977.
The Janata Party led by Biju Patnaik swept the polls. In the election Smt. Nandini Satapathy
5

defeated Smt. Malati Choudhury from the Dhenkanal Constituency. Smt. Malati Choudhury was
campaigning with her husband Naba Krishna Choudhury, a former Chief Minister for the Janata
Party during the Lok Sabha Elections of 1977. But during the assembly elections Smt. Malati
Choudhury decided to oppose Smt. Satapathy alleging excesses committed during Emergency in
Odisha. This stand of Smt. Malati Choudhury created a problem for the Janata Party. Quite a few
of the Janata Party leaders had extended indirectly their support to Smt. Choudhury, who filed
her nomination as an Independent. A new dimension was added to this problem by Jayaprakash
Narayan publicly supporting the candidature of Smt. Choudhury as against the Official Janata
candidate. There were many dissidents from the both the Congress and Janata parties who
contested as Independents or on behalf of the regional parties. Despite the overwhelming
majority the Janata Government of 1977 in the State experienced factional rivalries. A section of
the Janata Party leaders were of the opinion that the Socialists and the R.S.S. elements in the
party were trying to capture the organization at the cost of the erstwhile Bharatiya Lok Dal
faction, which was popular due to its leader Biju Patnaik. The State unit of the party was led by
Biswanath Pandit, as Chairman. Pandit belongs to the erstwhile Socialist Party and was elected
from the Cuttack City Assembly Constituency.
The Janata Party at the Centre was divided owing to differences between Charan Singh
and Moraraji Desai. This had an adverse impact on the Janata Ministry in the State. The Janata
Party was bifurcated into Janata (J.P.) led by Chandra Sekhar and Janata (Secular) led by Charan
Singh. The ruling Janata Party under Nilamani Routray was identified with the Janata (S) and the
Janata M.L.As under Prahallad Mallick had supported the Janata (J.P.). Chief Minister dismissed
two of his cabinet colleagues for anti-party activities. On 18 August 1979 Mr. Routray had
intimated to the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly that Sri Biswanath Pandit, Sri
Prahallad Mallick, Sri Biswabhusan Harichandan, Smt. Nandini Satapathy, Sri A.N. Singh Deo
and Sri Bhagabat Behera were expelled from the Janata Legislature party for the their anti-party
activities determinate to the cohesion of the party. The Chief Minister was of the opinion that if
any breakaway group of the Janata Party legislators wanted to be in opposition they might be
allowed to do so but he objected to using the name of Janata Legislature Party by the
breakaway faction. Meanwhile The Janata Party Government at the Centre led by Morarji Desai
fell in July 1979 and thereafter a new Government of the Janata (S) came into being under the
leadership of Charan Singh. The Lok Dal was revived in September 1979 led by Charan Singh.
In Odisha the supporters of Biju Patnaik, who first joined the Pragati Legislature Party inside the
6

assembly later joined the Bharatiya Lok Dal. When the B.L.D. merged in Janata most of them
joined the new party and when the Lok Dal was revived they expressed their confidence in
Charan Singhs leadership. The Routray ministry in Odisha, which identified itself with the Lok
Dal at the all India level, had to face factional rivalry when the Ministry was expanded. The Lok
Dal legislators were unhappy over the inclusion of Sri Brundaban Nayak and Jagannath Mallick
in the Cabinet. Nayak, who was the leader of the Congress Legislature Party had defected from
the Congress (I) to join the Lok Dal and was given a Cabinet Ministership with important
portfolios of Public Works and Rural Development Departments. The dissidents argued that
Nayak would be a liability rather than an asset to the party. Mallicks inclusion in the cabinet
was also resented by a section of Lok Dal legislators and party rank and file. Mallick was earlier
asked to relinquish the post of the party Chief Whip in the Assembly when it was alleged that he
was the brain behind a plot to oust the Routray Minister. Though the Janata Party had secured
110 seats in an Assembly of 147 members, the strength of the party had risen to 117 with the
joining of 7 Independent legislators. The change in the political complexion at the Centre and the
Presidential Proclamation of February 1980 put an end to the Routray Ministry in Odisha..
The Congress (I) Party led by Sri Janaki Ballav Patnaik swept the polls in May 1980. In
the first two years Patnaik faced the tirade of rivals. Party men complained to the Party High
Command against his government with corruption and inefficiency. Among the Congressmen
who spearheaded the campaign included Bipin Das, then the Chief Whip of the party in the
Assembly and Sheikh Matlub Ali, along with many M.L.As of the ruling party. Mr. Basant
Kumar Biswal, known as the Super Chief Minister though a Minister of State, had been
attending almost all Cabinet meetings. Biswals interference in other departments was a cause of
resentment among the ministers in charge of those departments. The ministers who felt
domineered of slighted were Raghunath Patnaik (Finance), Upendra Dixit (Revenue), Gangadhar
Mahapatra (Education) all of Cabinet rank and Kishore Chandra Patel (Industries) and Harihar
Karan (Health) both Ministers of State. The aggrieved ministers were understood to have formed
a sort of informal group to resist Biswals dominance in the J.B. Patnaik administration. Another
instance of the partys factionalism came to limelight when Hemananda Biswal, the Congress (I)
M.L.A. and the Chairman of the Public Undertakings Committee, gave a report which created a
sensation in Odisha. On March 30, 1983 when Mr. Biswal was disallowed from tabling his
committees report in the House, he read out the report in defiance of the Chair and later

distributed copies of the report to the press. The P.U.C. report was virtually a stricture against the
Chief Minister.
The dissident activities in the State inside the state Congress (I) resulted in open
factionalism. The anti-Patnaik faction was led by the then Union Minister of State for Chemicals
and Fertilizers. R.C. Rath had with him Mr. Kanhu Charan Lenka, the former Revenue Minister
in the Patnaik cabinet and some other members. The factionalism in the Congress (I) took a
definite shape with the joining of more M.L.As and members of Parliament in the dissident
group. The dissidents in the party included K.C. Patnaik and Lalit Mohan Gandhi, who were
sacked from the position of Ministers of State after adverse court verdict. A number of prominent
M.Ps. like Braja Mohan Mohanty, Laxman Mallick, Krupasindhu Bhoi and Shyam Sundar
Mahapatra helped the dissident faction directly or indirectly.
The Congress (I) swept the 1985 elections to the Odisha Legislative and J.B. Patnaik
became the chiefminister for the second time. Ram Chandra Rath had resigned from the party
after he was dropped from the new Central ministry headed by Sri Rajiv Gandhi. He later joined
the Janata Party to contest the Lok Sabha seats from Aska constituency. Following his
resignation Gayachand Bhuyan and Arjun Sethy two prominent M.Ps and K.C. Patnaik M.L.A
had also resigned from the Congress (I). Later Gantayat Swain M.L.A. and a follower of Rath
resigned from the party.
After one year of his administration, one of the senior Cabinet members Sri Anup Singh
Deo was dropped on the ground of antiparty activity, and Bhupinder Singh, Smt. Parama Pujari,
Niranjan Patnaik and Saraswati Hembrom were inducted into the Cabinet. Niranjan Patnaiks
inclusion to his Ministry was a bone of contention for many senior members with in the
Congress Party. They demanded the resignation of Niranjan Patnaik for he was admonished by
the High Court of Odisha upon a bribery case relating to mines. At the pick of discontentment
three senior Ministers such as Gangadhar Mahapatra, Bhajaman Behrea and Hemananda Biswal
were also dropped.
Very soon dramatic developments followed within his Party, that relation between the so
called super Chief Minister Basanta Kumar Biswal and Chief Minister, Janaki Ballav Patnaik got
strained and they were drifting fast towards the point of no return. It was alleged that Janaki
Ballav Patnaik illegally possessing large area of land in his village Rameswar and had
8

constructed a flat upon that illegal area. To denounce him a case was also filed in this connection
against him at the Odisha High Court.
The dissidents seized the opportunity to lambaste the Chief Minister by publishing
defamatory stories in the Illustrated Weekly. In 1985 Basanta Kumar Biswal was given the
Congress (I) ticket to contest a Lok Sabha seat vacated by Biju Patnaik on being elected to the
State Assembly but, to the surprise of many, he failed to win.
On 19th December, 1986, he removed two Cabinet Ministers Gangadhara Mahapatra,
Bhajaman Behera and one Minister of State, Mr. Hemananda Biswal from his Ministry.
Desperate, Basanta Kumar Biswal joined the anti Janaki Ballav Patnaik faction in the party
which was headed by Mrs. Nandini Satapathy.
With a triumphant majority, Biju Patnaik returned as the Chief Minister of Odisha after a
long gap of 27 years in 1990. But a number of Janata Dal MLAs including Tathagat Satapathy,
Umesh Swain, Arun Patnaik, R.P. Swain, Amar Satapathy, Surendra Pattajoshi and Pradip
Maharathy had several grouses against Biju Patnaik and even termed their own government as a
government of kick-backs and corrupt ministers. They revolted against controversial decisions
of Biju Patnaik like waiving of bamboo royalty on Ballarpur Industries in Choudwar, waiving of
electricity duty on IMFA, privatization of spinning mills sale of three cooperative sugar factories
to private companies, privatization of OMCs gemstone mines and other industries. His own
party men challenged him the IMFA Company of Bansidhar Panda got an exemption on
electricity duty to the tune of several crores of rupees.. Senior members of Bijus Cabinet like
Harish Chandra Boxipatra, Sarat Chandra Kar, Ramkrushna Patnaik and legislator Tathagat
Satapathy and Prdeep Kumar Maharathy reasoned against the waiver. The Odisha State
Electricity Board claimed the IMFA owed them a sum of seventy crores. Intra- Party conflict
became acute and that reduced the credibility of the government.
Rabi Ray, a senior party man perceived that whatever Biju had done in the past five years
had been disastrous for the State. Srikant Jena had become Bijus sole critique at the national
level and by extension, a biggest trouble creator. Nilamani Rout Ray, Odishas Minister of 1977,
turned out to be Bijus bugaboo.
In a bewilderment state of affairs than came the election of 1995. Janaki Ballav Patnaik
himself was not a candidate in this election. All of a sudden, he appeared as a father figure from
the oblivion to head the Congress legislature party. At the time of formation of his council of
9

Ministers, Janaki Ballav Patnaik was very conscious about strong man like Basanta Kumar
Biswal, Hemananda Biswal, Kanhu Charan Lenka and Bhagabat Prasad Mohanty. , key port
folios like Revenue, Finance, and Panchayatraj were given to Kanhu Charan Lenka, Basanta
Kumar Biswal and Hemananda Biswal respectively.
But after few months, Janaki Ballav Patnaik took away the finance portfolio from
Basanta Kumar Biswal, the urban development portfolio from Amarnath Pradhan and the
planning and coordination department from Bhagabat Prasad Mohanty. Basanta Kumar Biswal
was given a less important department like planning and coordination which was with his strong
supporter Mr. Bhagabat Prasad Mohanty and Mr. Mohanty was left with pension and the public
grievances Department. Likewise, the Goldmine of Mr. Amarnath Pradhan, a cousin of Basanta
Kumar Biswal, passed on to the enemy of Basanta Kumar Biswal, Jagannath Rout, a supporter of
Janaki Ballav Patnaik. Amarnath Pradhan lost his urban development portfolio to hold the health
department was with Jagannath Rout. This irked the Basanta Kumar Biswal group.
Kanhu Charan Lenka, Bhagabat Parasad Mohanty, Jayadev Jena, Amarnath Pradhan,
Deputy speaker Bibhuti Bhusan Singh Mardaraj, Lalatendu Mahapatra, M.L.A. and a Non
M.L.A. Umaballav joined the dissident group.
On July 11, 1997, Mrs. Anjana Mishra, the estranged wife of an IFS officer Sri Subash
Chandra Mishra and the daughter of a retired Chief Engineer who came to lime light by filing
cases against the Advocate General Mr. Indrajit Roy who was allegedly molested her in his
Government residence. But, Mrs. Mishra and some dissident leaders of Congress party tried to
fish in troubled water. The dissidents tried to convey party high command at the centre that the
Chief Minister. Janaki Ballav Patnaik should now be replaced on ground of providing coverage
to a State corruption. Unfortunately this issue became further aggravated then, in January, 1999,
when Mrs. Anjana Mishra was gang rapped by three people on her way to Cuttack. She blatantly
alleged that they were sent by the Chief Minister, Janaki Ballav Patnaik to demoralize her not to
proceed with Advocate General issue. Five Ministers of Basanta Kumar Biswal group rushed to
Delhi and demanded the Chief Ministers resignation.
At the behest of political intricacies on 9.2.1999 Janaki Ballav Patnaik preferred to
sacrifice himself offering his resignation to the Congress President sonia Gandhi on the ground
of moral responsibilities for the spate of violent incidents, especially gruesome attacks on
Christians by the communal forces in the State.
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In 1997 after the demise of Biju Patnaik, the Odisha unit of Janata Dal showed the way
for a split. December, 1997 Naveen Patnaik announced that he and a large number of legislators
were breaking away from the Janata Dal (JD) to form the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). There was a
trouble for the BJD chief at home as the party headed for a split. The BJD led towards a
vertically split between groups owing allegiance to Naveen Patnaik and to rebel leader Vijaya
Mahapatra.
Interestingly, both sides (Naveen Patnaik and Vijay Mahapatra Group) accused each
other of being agents of Congress Chief Minister J.B.Patnaik.. While the loyalist camp alleged
that the rebels were out to break the party at the behest of J.B.Patnaik, the rebels pointed the fact
that the party president, Naveen Patnaik, for all his talk of uprooting the Cynical, corrupt
Congress government in the state, had failed to spearhead any meaningful agitation against the
J.B.Patanaik Government. His decision to induct Damodar Rout and Sarat Kar had disaster
written all over it.
Naveen Patnaik suspended five party MLAs for anti-party activities. 18 Janata Dal
legislators included Narasingha Mihsra, Judhistir Das, Surendranath Nayak,, Prafulla Ghadei,
Prafulla Samal, Mangala Kissan, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Duryodhan Majhi, Bira Sipka,
Balabhadra Majhi, Jogendra Behera, Suryamani Jean, Prasanna Kumar Patsani, Bijay Ranjan
Singh Bariha, Hrushikesh Nayak, Bikram Kesari Arukh and Madhabandnda Behera formed a
separate group opposed its alliance with BJP. Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly later, on
December 19, 1997 recognized the break-away group of Janata Dal, thus formalizing the split.
Naveen Patnaik, the BJD President had taken action against six MLAs and two MPs for antiparty activities. The two MPs were Prabhat Samantaray and Tathagat Satpathy. The MLAs were
Bijay Mahapatra, Kalpataru Das, Surya Narayan Patro, Bijay Shree Routray, Bishnu Das and
Pravat Tripathy. The Speaker G.M.C Balayogi rejected the appeal of Naveen Patnaik to declare
these two MPs as unattached members in the Lok Sabha.
The dissident group was unhappy with the decision of the party Supremo Naveen Patnaik
on the organisational matters of the party. Fifteen dissident MLAs elected the party legislator
from Bhadrak and former Minister Prafulla Samal as the leader of the Opposition in the State
Legislative Assembly, replacing Rama Krishna Patnaik. The Speaker of the State Legislative
Assembly recognised Samal as the Leader of the Opposition on 16 November 2000.
Subsequently, Rama Chandra Sethy (Gopalpur) was elected leader of the loyalist group in the
11

State Legislative Assembly resulting in the two groups being recognized as BJD (A) and BJD
(B) by the Speaker. Later both the groups authorized the party President Naveen Patnaik to select
the leader of the house. Sachidananda Dalal (Boudh) was elected as the Leader of BJD
Legislature Party and was officially recognized as the Leader of the Opposition. Later on the
President of the party withdrew the suspension and removal orders against dissident MLAs and
MPs on 2nd December 1998.
Very soon the crisis in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) came to an end with party Chief Naveen
Patnaik reconstituting the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) with Vijay Mahapatra as its
Chairman. In this state of affairs elections to the Odisha Legialative Assembly were held on 17
February 2000 for 70 constituencies and on 22nd February 2000 for 77 constituencies. Dissident
Vijay Mahapatra was denied party ticket in dramatic mode. Naveen Patnaik had issued Bijaya
Mahapatra, another founder member of the BJD and an influential political leader, the party
ticket to contest the elections. But on the last date for the filing of nominations Naveen Patnaik
chose somebody else-Atanu Sabyasachi. BJD-BJP alliance secured 111seats and on March 2000
took the oath of office of the chief minister, Odisha.
After the Rajya Sabha elections in March 2002, the rebels gathered substantial strength to
challenge Naveen Patnaiks leadership. By winning the Rajya Sabha election on March 27 as an
Independent candidate, the BJD leader Dillp Ray had made it clear that he had the support of a
good number of party legislators. Ten days before the elections, Naveen Patnaik had expelled
Ray, one of the founder members of the BJD and a former union minister, from the party. Ray
won amid large-scale cross - voting by legislators of the BJD and its ally, the BJD.Much to
Naveen Patnaik consternation, Dillp Ray who was Industry Minister in Biju Patnaik Patnaiks
cabinet, managed to get the voters of 14 BJD and eight Bharatiya Janata Party legislators.
Naveen Patnaik dithered in taking action against those 14 party MLAs who defied the
whip and voted for Dillp Ray. Naveen Patnaik knew who violated the whip, as there was no
attempt on the part of the rebels to keep their stand a secret. Any action against them was likely
to cause a split in the party. In 2002 Naveen patnaik dismissed three ministers - Nalinikanta
Mohanty, Kamal Das and Prasant Nanda on charges of corruption. Though, there were no cases
against them, Naveen Patnaik sacked them as it suited him politically. State finance minister
Ramakrushan Patnaik announced his decision to resign from the cabinet on April 6, 2002, on

12

being divested of the finance portfolio. The reverberations were felt in Delhi too, with Naveen
Patnaik suspending three dissidents BJD MPs to avert a possible split in the parliamentary party.
The suspensions of Jagannath Mallick, Prabhat Kumar Samantray and Kumudini Patnaik,
who were representing Jajpur, Kendrapada and Aska constituencies respectively, was aimed at
preempting any move by the dissident MPs to split the 10 member BJD group in Lok Sabha. In
order to prevent a formal split in the parliamentary party, Bishnu Priya Behera, wife of party MP
Padmanabha Behera and Panchanan Kanungo, younger brother of Trilochan Kanungo, also an
MP, were accommodated in the Ministry.
The suspension of the Mps assumed significance as one of them, Kumudini Patnaik, wife
of senior BJD leader and former state Finance Minister Ramkrishina Patnaik. Angry with the
Chief Ministers decision to shift him to the Agriculture minister, Ramkrishna Patnaik resigned
from the BJD- Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government. Another minister who was dropped,
Duryodhan Majhi, had launched an offensive against the chief minister. In the past Majhi had
criticized the chief minister for Naveen Patnaiks lack of fluency in Oriya language and his
dependence on the bureaucracy for the running of the administration.
Six BJD MPs met the Prime minister, ostensibly to submit a memorandum on the drought
situation in Odisha. They included apart from the suspended MPs, Prasanna Patsani, MP of
Bhubaneswar, Prasanna Achary, MP of Bargada and Bhartruhari Mahatab, MP of Cuttack. Of
the suspended MPs, Samant Ray was a known critic of Naveen Patnaiks style of functioning
while Jagannath mallick became a dissident after his claim for a berth in the union council of
ministers was ignored.
The fourth coalition of BJD-BJP government was formed on June 4th May 2004. Despite
several difficulties in the coalition Naveen Patnaik sought to protect the clean image of his
government by asking some tainted ministers who had allegations, to resign from the State
Cabinet. Ministers Rabinarayan Nanda, Padmanav Behera, Golak Nayak, Damodar Rout
Bijayasri Routray, Manmohan Samal, Pradipta Kumar Nayak, Debasis Nayak Nagendra Kumar
Pradhan were the ministers whom Naveen Patnaik had removed from the ministry in order to
retain his clean image.
Naveen received a major setback when Aska M.P., Harihar Swain from BJD voted in
favour of UPA government disobeying the party whip. The BJD won a resounding victory in
both the Vidhan Sabha as well as the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, bagging 14 out of 21 Lok
13

Sabha seats and 103 of the 147 assembly seats and was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Odisha
on May 21, 2009 for the third consecutive term. In the last week of May 2012 Naveen Patnaik
had paid an official visit to England. During his absent on 29th May, 2012 a secret meeting was
held at the residence of Rajya Sabah M.P. Pyarimohan Mahapatra with an intension to topple the
Naveen Paatnaik Government in which some dissidennt BJD legislators including three
Ministers were present.
Within 24 hours of his return from London, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik suspendied
his long-time adviser and second power centre in the party, Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan
Mahapatra, along with a couple of his MLA supporters for the failed attempt to dethrone him in
his absence. Along with Mahapatra, two MLAs Prabhat Biswal and Bibhuti Balabantray were
suspended from the BJD. Naveen recommended dismissal of Women and Child Development
Minister Anjali Behera and Minister of State for Commerce and Transport Sanjib Sahu and
Miniser of State for Urban Development and Housing Sarada Nayak from the Ministry. Two
months after the coup bid drama against him, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reshuffled his
Cabinet and finally ended rounds of political uncertainties. Naveen dropped five loyalists of the
suspended Rajya Sabha member and inducted six new faces. The Pyari loyalists who were
shown the door were Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei, Tourism and Culture and Cooperation
Minister Prafulla Samal, Minister of State for School and Mass Education Pratap Jena, Minister
of State for Energy Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Minister of State for Labour and Employment
Puspendra Singhdeo. Anti- Pyari baiter Damodar Rout was taken back as a Cabinet Minister.
Rout and Bijayshree Routray were now the two old faces of the BJD making a comeback.
Striking a balance between old and young, the Chief Minister inducted six new faces including
Angul MLA Pratap Keshari Deb, Angul MLA Rajanikant Singh, Nayagarh MLA Arun Sahu,
Bangiriposhi MLA Sarojini Hembram and Raghunahtpali MLA Subrat Tarai. Hembram and
Tarai are first-timers in the Assembly. Naveen made a huge overhaul in portfolio allotments.
Considered to be a favorite, Raghunath Mohanty was stripped of all the powerful portfolios like
Industries, Steel and Mines and Parliamentary Affairs and given Housing and Urban
Development and Information Technology in lieu of his earlier departments. A green horn like
Rajanikanta Singh was given the weighty portfolio of steel and Mines. The newly inducted
Kalpataru got the prestigious departments like Panchayati Raj and Parliamentary Affairs. Former
Panchayati Raj Minister Maheswar Mohanty got less significant portfolios like Tourism and
Culture and Planning and Coordination. The Cabinet reshuffle was done in a most secretive
14

manner. The news was known only when the Chief Minister informed the media about it at the
state secretariat today morning. Naveen Patnaik reached the secretariat at about 9.30 am and
informed the media about the swearing-in ceremony in the afternoon.
Challenging Patnaik's leadership, Mahapatra subsequently launched Odisha Jana Morcha
(OJM), a political forum, saying that he wants to "establish internal democracy" in the state's
ruling party. The expelled leader Pyarimohan Mahapatra turned it into a political party on
October 19, 2012. The reason behind launching of the morcha, its ideals and aims was
announced by its chief spokesperson Jagneswar Babu. Jagneswar was the only BJD leader who
had openly associates himself with Pyari by joining the OJM. Naveen Patnaik also expelled party
general secretary Jagneswar Babu on similar charges after holding a meeting of the party
executive committee ere.

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Manoranjan Mahanty, and L. N. Mishra, Odisha: Politics of Political Stagnation,

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