Reduced to less than one-fifth of its 2004 Assembly election strength, the BJP in Orissa is in stocktaking mode with Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra and national vice-president Karuna Shukla meeting the party MLAs and district presidents.

On Monday evening, Bolangir royal and Patnagarh MLA Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo was unanimously elected the leader of its six-member Legislature Party. The 52-year-old Deo was earlier being projected as one of the three probable chief ministerial candidates of the party. Though Deo made the usual noises about playing the role of a constructive Opposition, many senior leaders thought it a good occasion to remember the party’s performance in the 2004 Assembly polls when it won 32 seats.

With district presidents and senior party leaders dissecting the reasons for the party’s performance, the consensus on Tuesday morning seemed to be that the party was finished in the state. The party, which was unceremoniously dumped by ally BJD for being “communal”, had drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha election—it had won seven seats in 2004. Its strength in the Assembly was also reduced to six.

Party workers are now blaming top leaders who they claim spent their time feathering their own nest at the cost of the party. “The party hasn’t grown since 1995. We weakened our position in the last 11 years while the BJD continued to grow,” says BJP youth leader Jatin Mohanty. Manmohan Samal, despite having to quit his ministry for an alleged liaison with a married woman, was nevertheless given an Assembly ticket from Bhandaripokhari, where he finished third after the BJD and Congress. Other former BJP ministers like Samir Dey, Surama Padhi and Golak Nayak are also facing serious corruption charges.

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