In 2019 when Odisha goes for the Assembly election, it would witness a different kind of Kalinga War. Kalinga was the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Indian subcontinent. But this forthcoming battle will be of ballots, in which the supremacy of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), a truly regional party which has been in power for the past two decades, will be tested.
Like the Mauryan emperor, the Patnaiks — first the father Biju Patnaik, who was described as the 'Emperor of Kalinga', and then his son Naveen Patnaik — have been the Chief Ministers. But the Patnaiks adopted the policy of 'no permanent friends, no permanent enemies' and the BJD participated in several ruling coalitions with the BJP both in Odisha and in the Centre.
However, the BJD parted ways with the BJP for both the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections 2009 citing differences in seat sharing. The Biju Janata Dal won a huge victory in the 2014 elections securing 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 117 of 147 in the Assembly seats. It was from here that the BJP lost its face in Odisha. The state is being ruled by Patnaik for the 17th year now.
The BJD suffered heavy reverses in the Odisha Panchayat and Zilla Parishad elections. Post the panchayat polls, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas, has single-handedly been able to convince the party's leadership that the BJP have a realistic chance to wrest Odisha from BJD in the 2019 Assembly elections. The state elections are being held along with parliamentary polls.
In the Zilla Parishad polls, out of 800-plus seats, the BJP won 300 seats to come second behind the BJD, which won close to 500 seats.
Odisha has 147 Assembly seats and 74 is the number required to form the government. In 2014, the BJD had won 117 seats, the Congress 16 and the BJP 10. And in the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD had won 20 out of 21 seats. The BJP won only one seat in a tough fight in Sundargarh. The Modi wave that swept the 2014 elections was clearly missing in Odisha.
Pradhan, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Bihar, has been telling the party leadership that the BJP has been able to make its mark in the rural areas by winning 300 seats and it can improve its showing in the urban areas.
He is credited with influencing the party to hold the national executive council meeting in Bhubaneshwar, where he was successful in convincing the BJP leadership that the party can come to power in Odisha. Pradhan asserted himself as the face of the BJP in Odisha.
Political observers in Odisha feel that Pradhan is playing a key role by asserting the BJP's power in the state. The party leadership, keeping in view the next Lok Sabha elections, would keep the doors open for a possible alliance once again with two old political friends. This would be in other words an acceptance of the fact that Patnaik still enjoys power in the state, but in the bargain, the BJP would win a few seats in the Lok Sabha elections. Whatever may be the game plan, the BJP would field Pradhan as its main combatant and as the Chief Minister's face.
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 "Dharmendra Pradhan")
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