A recent opinion poll conducted by a leading television channel claims that the BJP in eight months’ time since the last general elections has increased its vote share by eight per cent in the State while principal Opposition party—the Congress’s popularity has dipped due to fall of its vote share from 26 per cent to 15 per cent. And, the vote share of the ruling BJD has also dropped by two per cent.
The survey indicated that the BJP is gradually growing as the main opposition party while Congress is losing its ground. However, political observers feel that there has been fast change of situation in the saffron party after the maiden visit of its national president Amit Shah. It is also an open secret now that the BJP rank and file lost its strength due to the silence of Amit Shah on scams. “Had Shah not visited Odisha, the party’s performance in opinion poll would have been much better,” pointed out a former State President of BJP. Shah has snatched away the talking point of the workers and leaders of the saffron brigade, he admitted.
While the Sangh Parivar’s political outfit has been celebrating its growth in the State, the main Opposition Congress has started working silently under the leadership of Prasad Harichandan, a young leader hailing from a freedom fighter-cum-agrarian family. The soft spoken son-in-law of the loud mouth Congress leader Suresh Routray has been working silently. Harichandan has meanwhile toured different areas of western and southern districts and is still working on his agenda.
Political observers feel that Harichandan is following the footsteps of former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y Rajsekhar Reddy, who quietly covered the villages of Andhra Pradesh, while the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was busy in administrating the State. And at that point of time Naidu was at great height and nobody thought that Reddy will dislodge the TDP so easily.
The OPCC president so far has met farmers in western and southern Odisha and has taken up their causes. He held meetings with them and physically felt the agony under which the farming community has been subjected to. Harichandan has decided to launch a mass movement of farmers across the State. It would start from the State capital, party insiders said, adding that the OPCC is scheduled to hold a massive farmers’ rally before the State legislative Assembly during its ensuing Budget Session.
Harichandan, who used to speak in fluent local language, has no problem of communication with the villagers. Unlike Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the State Congress chief has no language problem and he never uses the stylish words of saffron leaders. Harichandan speaks the language of villagers and therefore, he is gaining their support, feel observers.
Another major difference between Harichandan’s OPCC and the BJP is that the former, for the time being, keeps his activities away from media while the BJP is used to issue press releases on drop of a hat. The new OPCC chief knows that his foremost job is to mingle with people and to assess their problems. A believer in Gandhian principles, Harichandan has launched Padajatra, though many of his colleagues in Congress denounce this method of reaching out to people.
“Prasad Babu’s Padajatrastyle is not suited to the present day politics,” a student Congress leader opined. The opinion survey of the news channel may be true as they were taken before the visit of Amit Shah to the State. Meanwhile, things have changed. Harichandan’s most of the silent programmes were organised after Amit Shah’s visit.
In fact, Shah has provided ammunition to Harichandan to make claim that he heads the party which has the potential to dislodge the 15-year-old regime of Naveen Patnaik. While claiming existence of secret ties between BJP and BJD, Harichandan pointed out that the CBI with political intentions slowed down the investigation into the chit fund scam as a large number of ruling party leaders are involved. In such cases, including one like Centre’s ordinance on the mines matter, Harichandan gained public support. The Congress leader took no time to criticize the BJP for putting spoke on the State’s bid to go for auction of new and second and subsequent mines renewals.
Harichandan’s call “We and not Me” seems to have provided required respect to senior leaders. The new OPCC president is not seen as a representative of any one faction and therefore, he has established that he is the leader who can take all in the Congress in Odisha.
However, Harichandan has a problem to run the party in the State. While BJP’s Central leadership like Narendra Modi is an asset for the saffron party in the State, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and the Central leadership are considered liabilities for the Congress. When former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan targeted Rahul Gandhi, Harichandan was prompt to defend the Congress vice-president over
Niyamgiri mining issue. Besides taking the party to the grassroots level, Harichandan has a big task to keep the image of the Central leaders clean as they are interconnected, opined a political observer. Realizing that Harichandan is getting acceptance in the party and by the common people, former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik and other senior leaders not only attended the ‘Chintan Baithak’ (brainstorming session), they are now participating actively in various programmes of OPCC.
Now the buzz in OPCC is to “take the political programmes to the masses instead of limiting it to the PCC office and the media.” While announcing complete support and cooperation, many leaders shun their differences and are now united under one umbrella. Thanks to Harichandan’s polite behavior, which was lacking with the Jenas, pointed out a former Chief Minister.