A day after BJP State spokesperson Suresh Pujari claimed that his party would win in six of the 10 lok Sabha seats where polling was held on April 10, a national TV channel on Monday forecast seven of all the 21 lS seats in the State for the saffron party.
Interestingly, this very channel had a little over a week predicted absolutely not a single lS seat in the State and said Naveen was having a “dream run” with an expected 18 lS seats for his BJD. Its prediction then gave the Congress the remaining three seats.
In its latest forecast, the channel has explained that apparently riding on a Modi wave, the BJP is set to win seven lS seats, replacing the Congress as the main Opposition party in the State.The BJP had drawn a blank in the 2009 general elections while the Congress had cornered six seats. And the channel’s present survey has predicted 13 lS sets for the BJD, one less than the 2009 figure.
The channel argued that the BJP’s remarkable gain in Odisha is at the cost of the Congress. But it has not explained why the “dream-running” Naveen Patnaik is failing to cash in on the Congress’ losses despite the fact that he roped in so many Congress leaders, including leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh, to the BJD on the eve of the elections.
If the channel found that the Modi effect is corroding the Congress’ base in the State, it has not tried to study that the pro-BJP trend is as well eating into the BJD’s vote bank as is evident from the channel’s prediction of at least one seat down for Patnaik’s party, say many political observers. And the BJP leaders are confident that Modi’s assertion of “Odisha going to spring a miracle” this time is going to materialise with the party not only capturing at least half of the lS seats but dislodging the BJD Government in the Assembly elections. The second-phase polls in the State on April 17 will throw up many more surprises in the BJP’s favour, the party leaders contend.