Bhubaneswar, April 16: The BJD is all set to observe the death anniversary of Biju Patnaik tomorrow in the backdrop of an intensified battle for his political legacy.

Both the BJD and the Pyari Mohan Mohapatra-led Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM) claim to draw inspiration from the iconic leader.

This, however, would be the first time that the party would observe the occasion without Mohapatra, who, following a permanent split with chief minister Naveen Patnaik, now leads his own party.

Sources in the BJD recalled that the leader’s last death anniversary was also the occasion when the differences between Naveen and Mohapatra, till then considered the “Chanakya” of the chief minister, intensified. Even though Mohapatra was at hand, the chief minister had entrusted the responsibility of organising the state-level function at the party office to veteran Prafulla Chandra Ghadei.

“I remember that. It made a lot of people jealous of me,” said Ghadei, who subsequently lost his cabinet berth. Later, an attempt was made to associate him with Mohapatra, who, many in the BJD believe, had hatched a conspiracy to unseat the chief minister.

As memories crowd the minds of party leaders, they are keen to put up a grand show this time.

“There will be a state-level function at the party office in Bhubaneswar, and then, there will be programmes in the blocks and the districts. We want to show Mohapatra that we can survive without him and that any attempt to usurp the legacy of Biju babu won’t succeed,” said a BJD leader.

Most of the ministers and senior leaders would be in Bhubaneswar to mark the occasion along with the chief minister, who has already set political temperature soaring by describing the Third Front as a healthy option in Delhi. However, after reaching Bhubaneswar today, Naveen said it was still early to talk of the Front in concrete terms. “It is still early days. Nothing solid has come to the forefront,” he quipped in reply to the questions of reporters.

While a Third Front may or may not become a reality, the statement has made it clear that Naveen continues to stick to his policy of maintaining equidistance from the Congress and the BJP.

With Naveen back in Bhubaneswar, he would be in charge of the state-level Biju Patnaik Shraddh Divas function at the party office here tomorrow. Even he has a point to prove to Pyari Mohan Mohapatra. “We have faced two Assembly sessions without Mohapatra. We held party’s organisational elections despite his threat to derail it. He has been dispensed with,” said BJD youth wing chief Sanjay Das Burma.