Biju Janata Dal and BJP leaders may swear by the bonhomie of their alliance in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, but they can be bitter foes in the civic polls.The State Election Commission has announced that elections to 93 civic bodies, barring Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, would be held in September. Of the 93 civic bodies, elections would be held in 59 Notified Area Councils and 34 municipalities. The commission has set expenditure limits for candidates contesting the elections, and government officials would be appointed to oversee this expenditure.Anyone would have expected some sort of seat-adjustment between the two parties in the civic polls as these were preceding the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. But the top leadership of the two parties is giving their respective followers the green light to fight each other in “friendly contests” as they did in the 2003 civic polls.BJP state unit president Suresh Pujari said the two parties had not discussed any alliance for the civic polls. “We are allies in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. But civic polls are a different ballgame altogether. These are fought on local issues and don’t affect the outcome of the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls,” said Pujari.The BJP leader said the party was “aware of the aspirations of local leaders” in civic bodies and hence would not pressurise them to go for seat-adjustment with the BJD. “We are not keen,” he told The Indian Express. BJD general secretary Narendra Swain said the civic polls were “far away” and any discussion about seat-adjustment was “premature” at the moment. “Naveen babu will take all decisions,” he added.In the 2003 civic polls, the Congress was the biggest gainer of the “friendly contests” between the BJD and BJP, bleeding the coalition partners. Having failed to arrive at a pre-election arrangement, the “friendly contests” between the BJD and BJP only splintered the anti-Congress vote. The Congress won 502 of the 1,624 wards across 96 civic bodies that went to the polls while the BJD bagged 530 wards followed by the BJP with 334 wards. However, the BJD was in a majority in 23 civic bodies as against 19 for the Congress. The BJP was ahead in only six municipal bodies.The BJD and its partner fared well in coastal and southern Orissa while the Congress put up a good showing in the western districts and parts of southern Orissa.
