Facebook Debate on Soumya Ranjan Patnaik as Leader of Odisha

Does Soumya Ranjan Patnaik have the charisma, mass support, acceptability and strong organisation to challenge Naveen Patnaik’s invincible regime in 2019?

Deepak Kumar Prusty: Soumya Ranjan Sir can be a Chanakya, but not a contender. He does not have a popular image. Also, he has not done anything visible except running a media house and opera company.

Manas Ranjan Pradhan: Yes he can, as he has a vision for future. ‘Biju Jeevan Bindu’ is just a replica of ‘Ama Odisha Blood Donation’. Nobody thought that it would be a huge success. Any media house should act as a watchdog for the government and Soumya Babu has done that for the last 16 years.

Rajesh Pattnaik: No for the obvious reason… He neither has that leadership quality nor people friendly attitude because of his Mt Everest size ego. He is more of a self certified intellectual and his honesty & integrity can well be questioned.

Ajoy Das: Has any one seen any photos of their Editor on The Times of India or any English Newspaper. His photos dominate at least five pages of Sambad today. Self advertisement cannot make a leader. Acceptability, honesty and integrity are the need of the hour.

Satyabrata Panda: Charisma in Odisha’s public life denotes to a masked image, nothing near normal, more or less the art of hiding your natural feelings, a sort of hypocrite you may say. SRP has to learn a lot to be charismatic in this sense. He has the organisational strength in terms of media, social activities and language movement, but lacks a broad-based political platform.

Sachida Nanda Swain: No. Even Naveen Patnaik does not have the charisma! He has built his image purely on his father’s legacy. Soumya Patnaik may have the essence and knowledge, but does not have that visibility outside BBSR-Cuttack corridor!

Dhunku Sambalpur: Soumya Ranjan Patnaik is fit to be Chief Minister of Odisha. He is best among all. He is intelligent, well educated & has no record of Corruption, but he lags behind in oratory skills and mass contact. He has no support of a strong political party and above all he needs unconditional support of his brother, who is a political leader.

Rahul Barrick: Actual picture(s) of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik can be seen only when he comes to the political stage to challenge Naveen Pattnaik. So, finger crossed right now as it is too early to predict and hard to believe.

Bhawani Mahapatra: No, Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik is nothing sans Media house held by him. He has done nothing worth mention in his political life so far. His indiscipline, which left him suspended from the party, is a big setback for him.

Jagannath Satapathy: SRP represents the darker period JB era in Odisha as per the public perception. Still as a media mughal, he has been successful in some areas. Although he is talented, the past haunts him. He will be best fit as a Kingmaker.

Suresh Dash: Soumya Patnaik lacks patience. That is the biggest drawback in his political career. From Congress to BJP and then back to Congress and finally floating a new party, Soumya Patnaik is seen as a person who never did justice with his political assignments although he has been successful on other activities. Naveen remains the invincible leader in Odisha. Neither SRP nor any other leader (including Modi) can challenge him in the state.

Barendra Kumar: There is no life for SRP except in Congress…Anyone, who aspires to replace Naveen Patnaik, need to be from the Congress only. BJP can’t even dream to rule Odisha for the next few decades. The best option for Soumya Ranjan Patnaik will be to back to the Congress and find a safe place to enter the Odisha Assembly first.