Odisha BJP leaders are increasingly appearing to be a pack of jokers, especially when they keep “resolving” that the 2019 elections will belong to them. They are a helpless lot groping in the dark with the party high command and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik being in sweet terms for each other’s political expediency. It is almost common knowledge that the BJP central leadership wants the BJD’s help in the Rajya Sabha in crucial legislative matters and Patnaik needs the Centre’s patronage to stonewall probes into the scams, chit fund and mining.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls Patnaik as “Mera Mitra” in public and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj endears him as “Naveen Bhai”. BJP national president Amit Shah says that he should be allowed his own time to speak, if anything, against the Chief Minister or not. All this has watered down the State party leaders’ oft-proclaimed stand of opposition to the BJD Government.
And the two Union Ministers from Odisha Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, particularly the latter, are acting as the spokespersons of the party high command during their frequent visits to the State. Oram, who was vociferously critical of Naveen Patnaik’s controversial acts even during the BJD-BJP coalition regime, now seems to have been silenced by the central leadership.
It was indeed lowly politics for Pradhan and Oram, along with their Union Minister colleague Mahesh Sharma, to have targeted the State’s DGP Sanjeev Marik on a so-called anti-Centre issue during their latest visit to Bhubaneswar. Conveniently forgetting Naveen Patnaik, they joined the issue of stoppage of Central fund for police modernisation with the DGP, who had just stated after an official review meeting that the suspension of the Central fund has hit the State’s police modernisation programme. Pradhan’s veiled threat that All-India Service officers are to face action for such utterances as they are under the Government of India was unbecoming of a senior politician.
Pradhan, who is widely rumoured as the BJP’s Chief Ministerial candidate, is particularly keeping away from targeting Naveen Patnaik, apparently at the instance of the party high command. His powerful Delhi mentor Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitely is known to have close personal relations with Patnaik, whom Jaitley has been influencing for support to the Central Government at time of need. Patnaik, as is already stated, has a mutual interest to be spared probes into his Government’s scams.
In this scenario, the BJP State leadership’s “resolve” to build the party as the number one opposition force seems a nincompoop’s dream. The recent positioning of veteran Bijay Mohapatra as the head of a committee to strategise and fast-track moves for strengthening the party will be inconsequential as long as the party’s central leaders do not end their bonhomie with Patnaik and back the State leadership in full steam in its scheme of things to weaken the mighty BJD.
Bijay Mohapatra is also reportedly sad over the BJP national leaders’ friendliness towards Naveen Patnaik, who has been Mohapatra’s bête-noire ever since the very first general elections the BJD fought in 2000. The manner in which Mohapatra was disgraced from the BJD is still fresh in public memory and hurtful to him. Added to Mohapatra’s woes at Patnaik’s hand was his ouster from the NCP before the 2009 elections with Patnaik joining forces with Sharad Pawar.
Contrary to the BJP State leadership’s hope to ride the Modi popularity wave to become a viable alternative to the BJD in the 2019 elections and capture power, the fact is that the Congress, despite its drubbing at the national level, continues to remain number two party in Odisha. This was proved in the 2014 polls notwithstanding the Modi factor in many other States.
And this was also evident from the latest local body polls to the Ranpur NAC. Ranpur had elected Surama Padhi twice to the State Assembly. Padhi was even catapulted to the position of the president of the all-India BJP Mahila Morcha. She failed to get elected in the last Assembly elections. And she along with many other party leaders campaigned in the NAC polls. But the party suffered the ignominy of not bagging a single ward. The Congress, on the other hand, managed to win a seat.