So, it is apparent from the outcome of the first two of the five phases of the panchayat election that the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has begun suffering from an anti-incumbency trend 17 long years of its rule in the State under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik.
And people seem to have settled to a reckoning that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the alternative to the BJD. So far, the Congress was looked upon as the State’s number two political party as was evident from the earlier rural polls and Assembly and lok Saha elections.
Why the Congress has lost its main opposition force status is crystal clear to everyone. The party in the State is a multi-divided house with its organisational and legislative wings pulling in different directions with the party high command in New Delhi refusing to act to stem the rot.
With the Congress set to reduce itself to a poor last slot among the three principal parties at the end of the panchayat polls, the days of Prasad Harichandan as the State party chief appear to be numbered. A new PCC president, whether better or worse, is undoubtedly going to be installed by the high command much before the 2019 general elections.
The BJP’s surge, particularly at the BJD’s cost, reflects people’s disenchantment with the ruling party’s hackneyed anti-Centre slogans and its hyperbolic claims about the State Government’s achievements in all spheres irrespective of ground realities. The myriad corruption charges against BJD leaders, including Ministers, also seem to be raising a question mark on Naveen Patnaik’s parroted assertion of heading a “transparent, graft-free administration”.
It’s noteworthy that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh dared Patnaik on the latter’s own land by explaining his Government’s stand on the Mahanadi water dispute during the BJP’s panchayat poll campaign in western Odisha. The poll results from this region have shown a significant BJP victory, which perhaps means that the people were not convinced about the BJD’s protests against Singh’s visit terming him as Odisha’s enemy. Singh’s argument was Odisha has failed to utilise Mahanadi water with which it would have built five more Hirakud dams.
Another factor that has apparently helped the BJP’s poll performance is the BJP central leadership’s projection of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the State’s Chief Ministerial face. This is in sharp contrast to the state of affairs in the Congress as people do not know who the party’s real leader is to whom they would look forward to.