Bharatiya Janata Party has intensified Operation Lotus in Odisha. BJP is worried about the activism of former Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik. It feels that before Naveen Patnaik does any game, he should be weakened so much that he is not capable of doing any game. That is why the second Rajya Sabha MP of his party has been poached. BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar has resigned from the party and the Upper House and joined BJP. Now, a by-election will be held on his seat in the state, in which BJP will make him a candidate and in this way will increase the number of its seats in Rajya Sabha by one. In fact, BJP is more interested in reducing the number of Naveen Patnaik’s MPs than increasing its seats.
A few days ago, Mamta Mohapatra resigned. BJP gave her a ticket in the by-election and now she is a Rajya Sabha MP of BJP. On the other hand, in Andhra Pradesh, two Rajya Sabha MPs of Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party resigned and joined BJP’s ally TDP. BJP is reducing the number of Rajya Sabha MPs of these two parties because both these parties are challenging the BJP’s central government. Before Naveen Patnaik opposed the Wakf Board Bill, Jagan Mohan had said that he has 11 members of Rajya Sabha and 4 members of Lok Sabha. That is, he has 15 MPs as compared to TDP’s 16 MPs. He too opposed the Wakf Board Bill. Only after that the effort to reduce the number of his MPs started. In both the states, BJP has made a plan to deal with these former indirect allies of its. Soon there will be more resignations in both the parties.