Odisha: Centre or State? BJP’s Dharmendra Pradhan’s Fate Hangs in Balance

In Odisha, what appears to be smooth sailing for the ‘double engine’ Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government is not what is visible on the ground, at least within the ruling party.

An invisible internecine tug of war within the BJP is going on in the state with three to four factions on an over-ambitious drive to claim the top post of heading the BJP as its state president, as the term of the incumbent president Manmohan Samal is coming to an end soon.

Shadow Boxing

In fact, there are reports of shadow-boxing going on within the party ever since Mohan Charan Majhi was made Chief Minister in BJP’s first government in the state. Several prominent faces were hankering to display their political clout before the BJP central leadership but ended up red-faced when Majhi’s name came up from the party’s central leadership.

Aparajita Sarangi, who won the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat for the second time as the BJP candidate, Baijayant Panda, MP from Kendrapara, who had suffered the ignominy of one nasty defeat in the constituency after leaving the Biju Janta Dal (BJD), Manmohan Samal, BJP state president who badly lost in the last Assembly elections, are among some disgruntled leaders.

To top it all, it is being said that Dharmendra Pradhan, a Union Minister and once supposedly the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the BJP central leadership, who undeniably contributed to lifting the party’s image in Odisha, is today trying his best to rebuild his political relevance as far Odisha is concerned.

The Delhi leadership is reportedly closely watching what goes on in the state.

For instance, before the recent conclave of the Non-Resident Indians (NRI) in Bhubaneswar, some surprises sprung up to signal the warring factions that no one should side-step the top leadership’s ‘laxman rekha’ and try to become ‘poster boys/girls’.

Days before the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas extravaganza in Bhubaneswar from January 8-10, posters of Baijayant Panda, Aparajita Sarangi, Manmohan Samal and Dharmendra Pradhan were seen lacing the main roads, as if he or she was hosting the occasion. 

Midnight Thunder

To the surprise or dismay of the above leaders, one late night all the posters were removed and only the posters displaying Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi were visible everywhere. This was seen as a signal to all those leaders.

“Perhaps, it was also a clear message from the party Centre that the incumbent Chief Minister Majhi is not someone who can be ignored so easily,” Rabi Das, a political analyst, told NewsClick.  

“Some time back, there was speculation that Majhi was a mere rubber stamp CM and was hand-picked by Pradhan, who ultimately would replace him and take the driving seat in Odisha” said Das, adding “but that assumption seems to have withered now”.

Now Pradhan’s fate hangs in balance between Delhi and Odisha. He either has to carry on with the Union ministry job or come to Odisha and try his luck and somehow retain his political relevance that seems slipping from under his feet.

 “He cannot aspire to be the BJP president in Odisha while being in the Union cabinet or wage a political slugfest against the incumbent chief minister Majhi to unseat him without (Narendra) Modi’s concurrence. Because, one thing is clear, that Prime Minister chose Majhi for some reason. Of course, the move obviously also aims at the sizeable tribal vote bank in the state”, Rameswar Rao, a senior journalist, told this writer. 

After making Droupadi Murmu the President of India, Majhi is in the making to become a brand for the tribal community in the state, which till recently was in favour of Naveen Patnaik, former Chief Minister and BJD leader.

In politics, votes count more than anything else and Pradhan or anyone else cannot garner votes better than a tribal leader. Everything else is dispensable, say analysts.

 “As far as electoral politics is concerned, Pradhan has never remained a proven mass leader nor does he have a winning track record. His recent win in Sambalpur can best be described as a piggyback ride on Modi’s appeal in Odisha,” said Das. 

Some political analysts also feel that Pradhan would do better to hang his gloves and stay put in Delhi for some time, regardless of his hard work in shaping BJP’s image in Odisha in the past few years.

The writer is a freelancer based in Odisha.