Both the Biju Janata Dal(BJD) and the Congress may have to do a lot of hard work to give a decent fight to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the forthcoming polls in the state, analysts believe. While BJD is the state’s principal opposition party, the Congress is the BJP’s second biggest opponent. Both the parties’ are currently facing heavy inner party squabbling.

        The fissures in both the opposition parties were clearly visible during the recently held Rajya Sabha polls when several BJD and Congress legislators cross voted in favour of BJP defying party directive and order. As a result, the ruling party which had the numbers to capture one upper house seat, managed to win two. It was certainly a major embarrassing situation for both the opposition parties.

          Both BJD and Congress have initiated disciplinary action against rebel MLAs and suspended them from the party. However, the inner party struggle in both the parties seems to be far from far from over. The infighting appears to be more intense in the BJD. Recently, a woman leader and former Lok Sabha member from north Odisha and her former legislator husband resigned from the Naveen Patnaik led regional outfit along with their hundreds of supporters. Both subsequently joined the BJP. The state unit of the Congress had also seen similar high profile exits in recent past. These desertions confirmed the fact that both the opposition parties are currently batting in a difficult wicket.

         Observers are of the view that both the parties must initiate steps on urgent basis to rectify the problems in their respective houses primarily because the crucial panchayat elections are round the corner which will be followed by Municipal polls. The ruling BJP will be in a better position to give an excellent performance in both the local bodies’ polls if the two opposition parties failed to resolve their inner party problems.

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