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Last Wednesday, senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders in charge of the organisation in different districts of Odisha received a call from Naveen Niwas, the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. They were instructed to attend a meeting there in the evening to be chaired by Patnaik.
At the more than two-hour meeting, the leaders were told to make efforts to increase the party’s vote share and seat count in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls next year. The party had bagged 44.7% of the votes in the 2019 Assembly polls, marginally up from 43.4% in 2014. Meanwhile, the BJP in 2019 increased its vote share to 32.5%, up from 18% five years earlier. In the Lok Sabha, the vote share of BJD and BJP in 2019 was 43.3% and 38.9% respectively compared to 44.8% and 21.9% in 2014.
To achieve its plan, the regional party has planned to conduct a training programme for its workers in all 147 Assembly constituencies so that they can spread the state government’s message of development. “At least 200 active members from every Assembly constituency will be trained at the party headquarters as messengers of the state government’s pro-people and pro-poor schemes and programmes at the grassroots. Since every household in the rural area has benefited from some scheme of the government, our workers will touch these households and seek their feedback,” said a senior BJD leader.
The regional party will focus on further deepening its ties with its core support base, including women self-help groups (SHGs), farmers, the urban poor, senior citizens, the marginalised sections, tribals, and youths.
Briefing reporters outside Naveen Niwas, BJD vice president Debi Prasad Mishra said the party discussed how to strengthen the party. “Discussion was held to take forward the organisational work of the party. Certain tasks have been given to the party leaders. Since the annual padayatra will also start on October 2, deliberation was also held on it. Suggestions were sought from leaders and a road map is being prepared,” Mishra told reporters.
According to BJD insiders, the CM, who remains the party’s biggest trump card, will hit the streets soon to address massive rallies in selected places.
With less than a year to go for the elections, both the BJP, which emerged as the principal opposition in 2019, and the Congress, which has been out of power since 2000, are also planning outreach initiatives to develop a narrative against Patnaik’s rule.
Realising that the “BJP-BJD nexus” narrative, triggered by Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s praise of the Odisha CM during his visit to the state last month, may have dented its support base, the BJP’s Odisha top brass also held a brainstorming session this week. They fear that the narrative could convince some of their voters to vote for the BJD.
The meeting, attended by the party’s Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and others, saw discussions on strategies to activate its booth-level organisation. The party has decided to launch a statewide agitation in the next two months, on issues such as alleged corruption, misrule, inefficiency, and misuse of government machinery to counter the “BJD-BJP nexus” narrative.
“The ‘BJD-BJP nexus’ narrative is a myth propagated by the BJD to demoralise our workers. The BJD is our enemy number one in Odisha. There is no question of joining hands with the party. We will vociferously fight the BJD on the ground,” BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Jaya Narayan Mishra told The Indian Express.
Mishra, who was part of the day-long meeting at the state BJP headquarters, said the party would release a 108-point chargesheet against the state government over issues such as alleged scams in mining operations, implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, non-opening of the Ratna Bhandara (treasure house) of Puri Jagannath Temple for a fresh inventory of its riches, and the CM’s private secretary V K Pandian’s chopper ride to districts to organise public meetings.
The political war of words between senior BJD and BJP leaders, which had taken a backseat for a brief period, especially after Shah praised Patnaik, has also started resurfacing. Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP’s prominent face in Odisha, who questioned the state of governance and the political situation in Odisha, on August 28 fired a fresh salvo with his “Sasikala syndrome” in Odisha — an apparent reference to the growing influence of Pandian. He also alleged that democracy was being throttled in the state.
The BJD’s spokesperson and Leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sasmit Patra, countered Pradhan, accusing him of embracing Chilka MLA Prasanta Jagdev who was suspended and subsequently expelled by the BJD earlier this year for indulging in violence in public. Patra said people know that all the talk about democracy by Pradhan was a “smokescreen”.
The BJD, however, is staying away from making any direct criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah or any central leaders of the ruling party at the Centre.
The Congress, meanwhile, is also gearing up to revive its organisation by projecting itself to be the alternative to the BJD and the BJP.
Pushed down to third position since the BJP emerged as the main challenger to the BJD, the grand old party has planned a padayatra from September 25 to October 15. It plans to reach out to every household and highlight the failures of the Patnaik government and the Modi administration at the Centre.
The party wants to highlight issues such as unemployment, corruption, price rise, and the growing influence of the CM’s secretary in the BJP and governance, exemplified by his chopper ride to districts to organise public meetings, among others.
As part of its effort to set the house in order, the Congress is also in touch with several senior leaders who had left the party in recent years, and is planning their return. Former Odisha CM and popular tribal face Giridhar Gamang and some former MLAs and MPs are expected to make a comeback to the party. The Congress’s vote share in Odisha slumped to 17% in 2019 from 25.7% in 2014 while in Lok Sabha it got only 16.10% votes in 2019 compared to 26.40% it bagged in 2014.
