Disquiet grows in Odisha BJP over bonhomie with BJD as Cong steps up bid for ‘real Oppn’

This time, the buzz about the two parties’ “tacit pact” was set off on February 12, when despite having the strength to win all the three Rajya Sabha seats, the BJD named only two candidates – ex-MLA Debashish Samantaray and youth face Subhashis Khuntia – for the polls.

Sources said Chief Minister and party supremo Patnaik was consulted by the BJP central leadership well before it announced Vaishnaw’s candidature, which led to the BJD’s move to field only two nominees.

As only three candidates were in the fray, all of them were declared elected to the Upper House “unopposed”.

As the bonhomie between the BJD and the BJP – which is the principal Opposition – continued to create ripples, both sides apparently mounted a “damage control” exercise too. While the BJD MLAs stayed away from Vaishnaw’s nomination-filing exercise, the latter also refrained from thanking Patnaik or his party for his election.

Cong campaign against BJD-BJP

The Congress has been pushing for a narrative over the “BJD-BJP nexus” in a bid to project itself as the “only real Opposition” in Odisha. As part of its revival plan in the run-up to the polls, the Congress has been positioning itself as an alternative to both the BJD and the BJP, organising their “mock marriages” across the state.

It is going to bring out a 10-point chargesheet against the BJD-BJP to allege how “the combine hampered state’s interests”. “We have been repeatedly saying that voting the BJD and BJP are same. They were in official alliance in Odisha for nine years and now they are in secret alliance. The Congress is the only Opposition in the state. We are exposing their unholy nexus and we will continue doing so aggressively,” said state Congress president Sarat Pattanayak.

The Congress also alleges that there was a “corporate and mining lobby” behind Vaishnaw’s Rajya Sabha candidature from Odisha. “There will be a new government at the Centre in a few months. How did the BJD know that BJP is going to form the government and Vaishnaw is again going to get the railways and communication ministries. What is the justification behind BJD’s claim that it supported for development of railways and telecom sectors? People are not fools,” said a Congress leader.

“Everybody knows the closeness between PM Modi and CM Patnaik. Also, Vaishnaw and Patnaik’s closest aide V K Pandian are known to have a good rapport,” said the Congress leader.

Unlike other Opposition-ruled states where the central agencies like the CBI, ED and IT have been “actively targeting” non-BJP leaders, there has been no such action in Odisha despite various “scams”, the Congress leader said, alleging that “this is the major benefit BJD is getting in exchange for its support to the BJP at the central level”.

Confusion among BJP cadre

There seems to be confusion and resentment among a large section of the state BJP leaders and workers over such closeness between the leadership of the two parties, which seem to have left them “demoralised” on the eve of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

“No matter what our central leadership thinks, one thing is clear that the decision will demoralise lakhs of BJP workers, who fought against the BJD on the ground for the past several years and faced numerous challenges including police cases. The state BJP, which is the main Opposition, is the biggest loser because of such compromise politics,” a BJP leader said.

Although just one-and-a-months are left for the polls, the BJP’s candidate selection process has not started in the state. Many party leaders, including ticket aspirants, continue to remain uncertain whether there will be a “formal alliance” or just “tactical understanding” between the party and the BJD for the polls.

On February 3, while addressing his first public rally in Odisha in five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had lashed out at the Congress for “neglecting and insulting Odisha”, but remained silent over CM Patnaik’s 24-year rule.

It was another matter that the Odisha BJP leaders have been urging people to usher in change in the state.

During his visit to Odisha in August last year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed Patnaik as a “popular CM” and lauded his steps in disaster management and containing of the “Maoist menace”. A month later, Patnaik gave PM Modi a ranking of 8/10 for his foreign policies and steps taken to fight corruption.

A state BJP leader, who went to Delhi last weekend to attend the party’s National Council meeting, said, “We have been asked by the central leadership to popularise the Modi government’s welfare measures on the ground. There was however no discussion whether we should fight aggressively against the BJD or not.”

Senior BJP MLA Mohan Majhi however claimed the party will fight the polls on its ow steam and “defeat” the BJD in the polls.

Alliance partners for 11 years

Officially, the BJD and the BJP had been allies for about 11 years. Both the parties were partners in the Odisha coalition government from 2000 to 2009 when CM Patnaik pulled out of the alliance just ahead of the polls. His move helped the BJD since to not only boost its vote share but also increase its seat numbers.

Although Patnaik has claimed that he has been maintaining an “equidistant policy”, the BJD has rallied round the Modi government within and outside Parliament on several issues – such as demonetisation, surgical strikes, key Bills and the Presidential polls – despite remaining outside the NDA fold.

A senior BJD leader said the party’s support to the NDA government is based on its principle of “cooperative federalism”. “We do politics during elections only. Once elections are over, we work for all sections of society without any bias against anyone. Similarly, instead of fighting against the Centre, our party believes in working with it for betterment of Odisha,” he said.

Contesting alone in the elections to the 147-member Assembly in 2009 and 2014, the BJP had won six seats and 10 seats, respectively. In 2019, the BJP bagged 23 seats against the BJD’s 112, pushing the Congress (nine seats) to third position to emerge as the principal Opposition in the state.