Poll campaign intensifies in Orissa

As Orissa goes to the polls to elect 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly members on April 16 and 23, both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) after ending their 11-year alliance are now blaming each other for the Kandhamal violence.

The killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati followed by the religious violence is now the prime poll focus for all political parties to gain mileage out of the issue.

At one rally on Monday, the BJP’s Hindutva Mascot and Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi criticised Naveen Patnaik dubbing him a weak chief minister who failed to protect the image of the State at national level. He blamed Naveen Patnaik for failing to protect the Hindus in Orissa.

Modi also accused Patnaik of not arresting the killers of Swami 'because of vote bank politics' -- a Hindu nationalist euphemism to mean minorities.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Patnaik, too, in a public rally in Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency Sunday urged people to reject both Congress and communal party BJP. He asked people to vote for BJD to bring Orissa into peace and prosperity.

Patnaik also accused the BJP of playing communal politics to grab votes. 'The BJP is a communal party and it has a communal agenda,' Patnaik told in the public meeting.

Taking the BJP-BJD rift as an advantage, Congress is now blaming both BJP and the BJD for letting the violence continue in Kandhamal for nearly four days.

Addressing an election rally in western Orissa's Bargarh town April 2, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the people to be vigilant in concern to the growing 'divisive forces'. 'The people of Orissa are peace-loving but seeds of hatred are being sown by some outfits in the name of religion and caste. Kandhamal is an example,' she added.

As per the present circumstances, the Kandhamal issue seems to go in favour of Congress rather than BJP or BJD. Party general secretary Rahul Gandhi is also scheduled to visit the riot-affected areas on Wednesday to woo voters.

Violence in Kandhamal district soon after the murder of VHP's Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others on Aug 23, 2008 by some unidentified gunmen, dragged the state to witness an ugly religious riot, in which at least thirty-eight people were killed and more than 25,000 Christians forced to flee their homes after their houses were attacked by mobs. About 3,170 people are still in government relief camps.