BJD sweeps Orissa; former partner the BJP draws a blank.
There was a clear undercurrent for Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief and CM Naveen Patnaik, but no one realised it till the results were declared. Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Orissa, the BJD won 14. The Congress improved its 2004 tally, winning six seats, but the BJP drew a blank. Parting ways with Naveen doomed it.
Among others, only the CPI had something to cheer about. It won one seat. The other parties in the fray, such as the BSP and SP, returned empty-handed. The result is a clear pointer to the might of Naveen, who single-handedly ensured the BJD’s victory.
The chief minister said after the outcome that his party would neither support the Congress nor the BJP, but sit in the opposition.
After the collapse of its alliance with the BJP, the BJD decided to go it alone and emerged a clear winner, the BJP’s vitriolic notwithstanding.
The Naveen wave was there, but no one thought he would sweep the election.
The Congress was hoping to gain from the BJP-BJD split. The BJP tried to draw mileage from the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal, but failed. Despite fielding a former IPS officer, it lost the Kandhamal seat to the BJD.
The many meetings addressed by high-flying party leaders, such as LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, Narendra Modi and Hema Malini, were of no help. The same is true of the Congress, whose campaign in the state was bolstered by party president Sonia Gandhi and general secretary Rahul Gandhi. The two addressed several rallies in the state, but nothing worked before the magic of Naveen.
Prasanna Kumar Patsani, who won the prestigious Bhubaneswar seat for the BJD third time in a row, said, “The people have acknowledged the massive developmental work initiated by the Naveen Patnaik government. No one matches Naveen’s impeccable personality.”
“The BJD’s rice at Rs2/kg scheme also clicked. Both the Congress and the BJP failed to counter it,” Prasanna Mohanty, associate editor of Oriya daily Odhisa Bhaskar said.
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