BJD’s decisive lead in the Patkura election counting has put another stamp over Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s iron grip over Odisha politics, while the apparent rout of Congress signals the state will see future contests largely between BJD and BJP. Patnaik, who recently won a record fifth continuous term as CM despite a high-powered BJP campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, is likely to add one more seat to BJD’s tally of 112 out of 146 in the state assembly. Patkura voting trends show the continuing collapse of the Congress in the state and surging vote share of BJP. After 16 out of 18 rounds of counting in Patkura, BJD has picked 89,389 votes, while BJP and Congress secured 72,155 and 2016 votes respectively. In 2014, Congress had secured over 42,000 votes in Patkura and emerged second after BJD. Patkura trends seem to be reaffirming the BJP’s rise at the expense of Congress, seen in the General Election results. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s vote-share had shot up from 21.5 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent, while its share in Assembly polls went up from 18 per cent to 32.5 per cent. Congress vote-share had seen a near-meltdown — from nearly 26 per cent in both elections in 2014 to 16 and 13.8 per cent respectively, in the state and Parliamentary polls. The BJD’s share in both Lok Sabha and Assembly was largely intact — between 42 and 44 per cent. “Congress has not performed well and seems to have underperformed its own tally in the general elections. However, communal forces have not succeeded”, said veteran Congress leader Narasingha Mishra on Patkura. Patkura election was also considered to be a personal contest between Naveen Patnaik and BJP’s candidate Bijoy Mohapatra. Bijoy Mohapatra, a powerful minister in former CM Biju Patnaik’s government and one of the founding members of the BJD in the nineties, fell out with Naveen Patnaik. Mohapatra, along with influential politician Dilip Ray, subsequently joined the BJP. Mohapatra had recently rejoined the BJP after resigning from the saffron party in December. In a joint resignation letter to party president Amit Shah, Mohapatra and Ray had communicated that the state unit of the BJP was ignoring its “sorry state of affairs” and treating them “as furniture”. “We can’t be treated as furniture in the party while the rootless talk big and project a larger than life image," they had said in the letter. A state BJP leader, who did not wish to be named, had told The Indian Express that the word "rootless" was directed at Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh". “Mohapatra’s loss will also be to Pradhan’s advantage, who wishes to purge the Odisha BJP unit of all old-timers and replace them with loyalists to himself," he said on Wednesday.
