The sharp 'ulloo' exchange between the two prime ministerial aspirants – one de facto and the other de jure – on Saturday has provided just the right setting for a fresh round of war of words during the back-to-back visits of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and BJP strongman Narendra Modi to Odisha.
This round begins today with the arrival of the Gandhi scion in Bhubaneswar on a two-day visit to the state. Modi comes calling on Tuesday, the day after Rahul leaves, which means the latter will have the first chance of landing a few punches against the Gujarat Chief Minister, who can then respond with a few counter punches of his own when he addresses a rally at the Baramunda Ground in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
He will have nearly two full days to attack Modi while the latter will only have an hour at the most to return the favour. AFP.
Rahul has another advantage in this bout. He will have nearly two full days to attack Modi while the latter will only have an hour at the most to return the favour. But much of the advantage is offset by the fact that Rahul, like Modi, will address just one public meeting during his stay though he will spend two days in the state.
But that is not the way Rahul's visit had been planned. As per the original plan, which has since undergone a series of changes, the Congress No. 2 was to address as many as six public meetings during his two-day stay – pretty much covering all the major regions in the state. By Saturday, the number of meetings had been drastically pruned to just one – at Bhatapada village near Cuttack today – ostensibly because of 'security concerns'. Tete-a-tats with youth, representatives of the minority communities and Congress leaders and workers – all of them in the safety of the state capital – have been conjured up from nowhere to fill in for the time suddenly thrown open by the changes in the schedule.
Apart from the changes in the schedule, the same 'security concern' has also led to a change in the venue for some of the interactive sessions that Rahul plans to hold in Bhubaneswar. The session with the students of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), originally scheduled in the university campus, will now take place at the Nehru Yuva Kendra in the heart of the Odisha capital. The change of venue was done 'as per the advice of the SPG', AICC in-charge for Odisha Subhankar Sarkar said helpfully. An interactive session with students of DRIEMS, an engineering college on the outskirts of Cuttack, was cancelled for the same reason.
Rahul's visit to the state has been a long time coming. It was first scheduled in the immediate aftermath of Cyclone Phailin in October last year and then kept getting postponed till now, causing severe disappointment in the average party worker and serious embarrassment to Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Jayadev Jena. Jena had also announced a visit by Congress President Sonia Gandhi several times, something that has not materialised yet.
For all the disappointment that the cancellation of five out of the six public meetings is bound to cause among party workers though, Rahul Gandhi' visit comes at a time when the party has something to cheer about after a long, long time: the victory of Congress candidate Ranjib Biswal in the Rajya Sabha election on Friday. Not many gave the IPL Chairman a chance against Padma Bibhushan Raghunath Mohapatra, the independent candidate handpicked by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the fourth seat, despite the fact that the ruling party simply did not have the numbers to ensure his win. Most political pundits believed Naveen would pull it off by some deft sleight of hand, which ensured the victory of Baishnab Parida in similar circumstances in 2010.
While Ranjib's victory by no means signals the revival of the party's fortunes, it certainly lifts the air of despondency that has gripped the average Congressman in the state, even if temporarily. Coming as it does just on the eve of his visit, Rahul can be trusted to cite this victory to impress upon the party cadres what the Congress can achieve if it stays united, as it did during the election to the Upper House of Parliament.
But Rahul's exhortations are unlikely to change the situation on the ground for the Congress. After all, the day that Ranjib registered a much needed win was also the day when the party suffered a resounding defeat in the election to two municipal bodies, winning just nine out of the 59 wards in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and drawing a blank in the 28-ward Baripada Municipality.
Moral of the story: the leaders of the Congress may have decided to sink their differences, but the people at large see no reason yet to repose their faith in the party again.
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