Bhubaneswar, March 23 -- It's a huge relief for everyone. Except for a handful of power brokers on either side of the political divide hell-bent on pushing an untenable alliance down the unwilling throat of lakhs of workers of the two parties; BJP and BJD. Senior leader and six-time MP from Cuttack Bhartruhari Mahatab, who quit the BJD moments after the announcement by BJP state unit president Manmohan Samal that the party would go it alone in the coming elections, was spot on when he said it would have been an 'immoral alliance' and bad for democracy, if it had gone through.

If the power brokers had their way, this perhaps would have been the first instance in independent India when a ruling party would have gone into an election in all...