Even as the three newly-elected BJD Rajya Sabha members Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Achyuta Samanata and Prashant Nanda took oath in the
Parliament last week, the BJD inducted two Congress stalwarts of the undivided Ganjam district into the party, former Union Minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu and former MlA nominee of Congress from Brahmapur Bikram Panda, with a view to fortifying the party in the undivided Ganjam district.
Sahu is a popular leader though he had won lS election only once in 2004. Similarly, Panda is a strong leader in the Brahmapur Assembly constituency who was defeated by only 1 per cent vote from the BJD in the 2014 general elections. Their entry to the BJD has strengthened the regional party, seriously weakened the Congress and checked the growth of BJP due to the possible defection of their followers to the BJP.
The BJD captured all the Assembly seats of the undivided Ganjam district in 2014 polls except Paralakhemundi that went to the Congress. Though the BJD has a strong base in the district, the rise of the BJP in the district perhaps pushed the BJD to take preventive steps. The BJD also requires some leaders to fill up the vacancies in a few constituencies of the district which are likely to arise in 2019. There is a talk that some more Congress leaders, including the Paralakhemundi Congress MlA, are likely to move to the BJD camp.
Both the selection of the RS candidates and the induction of the Congress leaders in Ganjam are new trends in the BJD. The BJD used to send low-profile party candidates or low profile independent candidates to the RS and accept the defected candidates from other parties during the poll time only. Now, a new trend has emerged. This time, the BJD has sent high-profile elite professional leaders like Soumya Patnaik, Achyuta Samanta and Prashant Nanda to the RS. While Nanda is a popular film personality besides being a party leader, Samanta is an internationally-known social scientist and Soumya Patnaik a media house owner and a social movement leader. However, the BJD inducted both of Samanta and Patnaik into its fold before sending them to the RS to harvest their individual goodwill for the party. Patnaik’s clout is spread across the State.
Every day, Patnaik attends public meetings invited by various public streams, ranging from politicians to college youths to socio-religious organistions. In case of Ptaniak, it is a win-win situation with the BJD. He was earlier a lok Sabha member. Getting hurt by the BJP and the Congress, he had left them once upon a time and had started a regional outfit, called the Aam Odisha Party (AOP). However, the party could not take off in the 2014 polls. He got associated with various movements but never used his AOP tag to politicise these platforms. It is natural for a regional party to merge with another regional party to work for the State’s interest. Therefore, Patnaik’s decision is seen as politically correct by observers. By joining the BJD, he responded better to the development needs of his constituency and his various movements.
looking into the Ganjam phenomenon, the BJD was seen inducting the Congress heavyweights during the non-poll time for the first time. After the 2014 poll, the BJP has been conducting regular induction programmes of the Congress middle leaders to the party while the BJD was silent. Perhaps, the successful drifting of the Congress leaders along with the Congress votes to the BJD, in the Bijepur by-poll, has given confidence to CM and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik to rope in Congress leaders into the party.
Earlier, there was issue in the shifting of the Congress votes to the BJD in case of Hema Gamang and Anup Sah which led to their defeats in 2014 with BJD tickets. Now, the situation has changed. Therefore, the BJD is accepting Congress leaders into party. In fact, induction of Soumya Patnaik into the BJD shall help drifting of the Congress votes to the BJD. The competition between the BJP and the BJD to woo Congress leaders towards them shall put the Congress in the back foot in the future unless that party adopts aggressive damage control measures. The BJD shall be more attractive to the Congress heavyweight leaders than the BJP.
The BJD’s partial defeat to the BJP in the 2017 PRI polls has alerted the party supremo Patnaik to take up reform measures to restore popularity. Thereafter, he has taken several measures ranging from changing ministry to adjustment of dissidents in various posts to arranging games to give call to check scheme based corruption and so on. It was Bijepur by-election that established supremacy of Patnaik over the BJP and the Congress again. Now, he is focussing on grassroots contact building through videoconferencing with Sarpanches and re-organisation of party at the constituency level.
The BJD’s aggressive strategy has forced opponents to change their strategies. The Congress has changed its Odisha Prabhari. Similarly, the BJP has changed its organisational secretary. There is also a talk of change of State presidents of both the parties.
Meanwhile, the BJD is raising its demand in the national politics in the NDA, UPA and Third Front camps by talking about its equidistance concept. The appointment of the new Governor indicates a soft stand of the Prime Minister towards the Odisha CM. Therefore, the 2019 battle will rely on the effectiveness of the State units’ plans of the opposition parties in Odisha.