Odisha: Ahead of Last Phase, BJP Pulls Out All Stops for Final Assault on BJD

With the last phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections on June 1, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with all its cylinders blasting, has turned Odisha into a political pilgrimage. No day passes when one leader or another from the national level does not pitch a tent in the state.

Including his scheduled visit on May 29, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would make his fourth visit to Odisha as a final assault on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in a bid to wrest power in the state from the Naveen Patnaik-led dispensation for his goal of a ‘double engine’ government. In Odisha, the Assembly elections are being held along with the Lok Sabha elections.

“Besides that, Odisha has virtually become a replenishment vessel which the BJP is banking on for its slogan of ‘Abki baar, 400 Paar’ (This time, 400+ seats), as obviously it is expecting a decline in its vote bank in North India”, Rabi Das, a senior political analyst, told this writer.

The language used by BJP leaders to demean Patnaik on his alleged ill health and terming him as being a ‘captive’ of some people in the BJD hierarchy, sounds too personal and below the belt. This does not fit into any decent political discourse”, added Das.

Union Home Mnister Amit Shah was also in Odisha on Tuesday, and was heard resorting to his oft-repeated threats to uproot the Naveen regime. He also tried to paint the Chief Minister in pitiable colours as a man who allegedly use crutches to walk in the ongoing electioneering.

Incidentally, after polling in Odisha on May 25 (the sixth phase), there was a sense disturbing calm in the state.

It is expected that the storm is yet to form with Modi’s May 29 visit for the final assault on BJD.

In the waiting area are three major Lok Sabha constituencies. The high-profile Kendrapara, Balasore and Mayurbhanj -- all three are going to the polls on June 1.

Among these three seats -- Kendrapara stands out as the nerve centre of coastal politics. Although it has usually remained a BJD bastion for long, with the BJP fielding Baijayant Jay Panda for the second time seems, reflects Modi’s last-ditch effort to help Panda win despite his humiliating defeat in 2019. (Panda had then switched over to BJP from BJD)

After two consecutive wins in 2009 and 2014 (as a BJD candidate) from Kendrapara as the most flamboyant face then, political observers do not give him any credit for the victory and instead say that it was Naveen Patnaik’s popularity that helped Panda ride to victory twice.

“The results of the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha poll in Kendrapara revealed that it was Naveen’s aura alone that buoyed Panda through all the turbulence twice, mainly in 2014, when Odisha stood apart despite the Modi wave”, said Priya Ranjan Sahu, senior journalist.

But in the current scenario, things seem to be changing as the PM is working overtime in Odisha along with many from the saffron bandwagon.

The other key Lok Sabha constituency is Balasore, which went in favour of the BJP’s Pratap Sarangi, who was also made a Union minister. This time, the chemistry may vary as Sarangi faces a tough fight from BJD’s Lakhashree Samantsinghar (a BJP turncoat) and the Congress candidate Srikant Jena, a former Union minister in the United Progressive Alliance regime. Jena, according to poll watchers, can be counted as a strong claimant this time regardless of the miserable presence of the Congress in the state.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha.