Bereft of any developmental issues and with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik showing distinct signs of distancing himself from the BJP, the saffron party in Orissa has decided to make the Kandhamal violence and killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda its poll issues.

Assembly polls in Orissa are expected to be held along with the parliamentary polls in 2009. But the saffron party, which allowed itself to be reduced to a ‘B’ team of Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal over past eight years, is now discovering that it has to go back to its patent formula of Hindutva to keep its head above water in the electoral politics.

An indication of the party’s gameplan for the coming polls came to the fore on Sunday when leaders ranging from national president Rajnath Singh to state president Suresh Pujari slammed the state Government over the “failure of the police in tracking down the killers of Laxmanananda, issue of proselytisation and the arrest of innocent tribals in Kandhamal”.

“The police have failed in finding the killers while innocent tribals are being arrested on charges of rioting. We would not be a mute spectator to this exercise,” said party president Suresh Pujari while addressing the poll meeting attended by all party ministers, MPs, MLAs, Zilla Parishad chairpersons, panchayat samiti members and representative of various civic bodies.

Sunday’s Vijay Sankalp Samavesh rally addressed by party president Rajnath Singh also brought out the party’s growing nervousness and anger against Naveen Patnaik who is slowly distancing himself from the saffron partner. Some of Naveen’s decisions, including a package for tribals in Kandhamal and allowing Christian NGOs to distribute relief to the riot victims, did not go down well with the BJP.

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