After lunching the first phase of the new Smart Health Card (SHC) programme under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana in Malkangiri district in August, Chief Minister and BJD Supremo , Naveen Patnaik, has distributed the SHCs to the people of Sundergarh district on September 14, in the second phase. According to the State Government, 3.5 crore poor people of 92.5 lakh economically vulnerable families, who are the beneficiaries of the national and State food security schemes, shall be benefitted under the health scheme.
The State Government will bear the full cost of all health services of the beneficiaries in all State Government healthcare facilities. In addition, all the BSKY Smart Card holders are eligible to avail free expenditure upto Rs 5 lakh for family and additional Rs 5 lakh for the female members after the exhaust of initial Rs 5 lakh, at any empanelled private hospitals.
After the successful management of Covid-19 pandemic, the ruling party, BJD, is planning to harvest further good -will of the poor through implementation of SHC. It may be reminded, the BJD Government is not implementing the Center’s Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in the State .Besides this health programme, the BJD led State Government has been running various welfare programmes in the rural and urban areas including the new MUKTA(Mukhyamantri Karma Tatpara Abhiyan Yojana -scheme) for the urban poor women.
The BJD has also strengthened the party- organisation in all districts, giving power to the young and the women leaders. The dissidents inside the party have been either punished or ignored for their vested-interests.
The party has been also giving additional focus to the districts like Mayurbhanja, Sundergarh , Kalahandi and so on where it had performed badly in last Panchyat and Parliament polls.The BJD has also declared 27% reservation for the OBCs in ticket- distribution in urban local body(ULB )and Panchyat Raj Institutions (PRI ) polls, as the new reservation amendments limit the overall reservation to 50% in elections. The 50% women reservation facility for the women in PRIs and ULBs shall fetch goodwill votes for the BJD as before.
With all these preparations, the BJD is ahead of the opposition parties in facing the forthcoming PRI and ULB polls. Besides, the party is confident of having a victory in Pipli by-election and in the event it happens, it will give a positive message in the PRI elections for the party.
In this situation, the TINA ( there is no alternative)- factor of Naveen Patnaik that had brought the BJD above 45% votes in last general elections, is all set to increase in the forthcoming local body polls. Coming to the Congress party in the State, after the approval of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) team last week, it is clear that the Congress High Command has reposed faith on Niranjan Patnaik to lead the State -unit for the forthcoming ULB and PRI elections. When Niranjan Patnaik was appointed as Odisha PCC-Chief in 2018, there were some leaders in the party who were opposed to him.
While his critic, Srikant Jena, was dropped from the party before 2019 election, another critic, Bhakta Charan Dash, was made the campaign- committee chairman for the general election to work closely with Patnaik.
Therefore, Niranjan Patnaik, went to 2019 general elections without any opponents. But he had only scored 9 MLAs, 1 MP and 15% vote share in the general elections which are treated as a historic electoral disaster of the party.Presently, Patnaik, has almost no opponents to stand in his way while fighting the 2022 -PRI or ULB polls. The protest by Koraput Congress MLA , Tara Prasad Bahinipati , against the PCC president , was silenced by Dr Chellakumar, who gave a stern message to the anti-Niranjan camp to leave the party in case of dissident activities.
But what is striking in Odisha Congress is that the party which was destabilised from power since 2000 for “parivarbad” , is witnessing many leaders putting more than one family members in party’s organisational posts now, a trend that started with the 2019 general election.
Unless rigorously worked, the vote share of the Congress is all set to fall below the 15% level in next PRI and ULB Polls. What about the BJP in Odisha? BJP has been growing in the State since 2014 general elections. It performed well in 2017 PRI polls, replacing the Congress as principal opposition.
The party developed further in 2019 general elections and occupied the Leader of the Opposition role in Odisha Legislative Assembly with 23 Assembly seats. Union Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, played a crucial role in this development of the party.
But the situation changed after 2019 general election. Factionalism erupted in the State unit like Congress, as the party could not achieve its mission of 120 Assembly seats. It got eight MPs, changing the earlier power- equation in the party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, realising the weakness of the State unit, began to treat the BJD as his informal ally for the smooth sailing in passage of bills in Parliament. Even the BJP MP and the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was to be elected to the RS with the support of the BJD.
How the BJP would fight the forthcoming ULB and Panchayat poll is a moot question?There shall be a vacuum in the State BJP, as Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has been given the responsibility of the tightly-packed UP Assembly -election.
In such situation, the BJP has no other option except to depend on Aparajita Sarangi, the Bhubaneswar MP, as its star-campaigner. Not only is Aparajita close to the Prime Minister but she is a popular leader as well as the credible woman leader to be at the helm of affairs in the State BJP unit. She can also bring together all MPs and left-out leaders to offer a strong and united fight in the local body polls.