A huge faux pas that was in the season of a combative campaign for the Puri Lok Sabha constituency between the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal(BJD), when the saffron candidate Sambit Patra had said that the ‘Lord Jagannath is an ardent devotee of PM Modi’.

That was a stunner that could not hide under any kind of apology by Patra tendered through his twitter handle well after hours.       

Puri Lok Sabha constituency is one of the most prestigious seats in Odisha. This time it (Puri) has come up to become more debatable for two reasons.  

One is the said Faux-pass by the BJP candidate from Puri Sambit Patra who had said in his address that ‘ Lord Jagannath is an ardent devotee of PM Modi’. Which has sparked wide-spread jitters among people and the BJD was quick to capitalize on this issue.

For Naveen Patnaik the faux pass by Patra came on a platter almost and the CM was unforgiving towards Patra for his such utterance which is an insult towards the Lord of the Universe, Jagannath.

Patra must undergo a penance of fast to atone for his sin, the CM has said.

Although Sambit Patra made an apology for his offence calling it a ‘slip of tongue’ through his X twitter handle but that was late enough to control the flame of anger among the people of Odisha. He apologized after about 12 hours and by then the political ramification was statewide and beyond.

Admittedly, the aura of the Lord transcends countries and the BJP must be knowing it well. Patra reportedly underwent a three day penance and fasting to atone his sin.

Unexpectedly, the other misstep was taken by PM Modi during a road show in Puri when he had raised the question of the missing key of the Lord’s main ornament room ‘Ratna Bhandar’ where the ornaments are kept.

However  the PM abandoned a thrill by saying that the key has gone to Tamil Nadu inviting criticism from many parts of the country and specifically the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, as Stalin has minced no words to condemn such an utterance from the PM and said that was highly unacceptable because people of Tamil Nadu are equally devoted to the Lord and this kind of statement creates a schism between the people of TN and Odisha.

Now BJD is trying to pull out many hurdles on its way in Puri to capitalize on Patra’s faux pas.

In 2019 Sambit Patra had lost in Puri in his debut into electoral politics. He was defeated by the BJD’s three time Lok Sabha MP, Penakhi Mishra by a slender margin. Since then he had been cultivating the Puri Lok Sabha constituency doggedly.

This time Patra is facing Arup Patnaik, ex-police Commissioner of Mumbai who is from Puri district itself.