He was the lone star battler for his party while a host of BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Modi, made a beeline to Odisha for election campaigning. Yet, he kept claiming that his BJD would triumph at the hustings and return to a record fifth time in a row.
Naveen Patnaik, despite the summer heat, toured the length and breadth of the State, every day covering about half a dozen places in his campaign trail. Unlike Modi changing his dresses and at times also donning local costumes, The 72-year-old leader stuck to his trademark white pyjama and kurta and chappal during all public appearances.
And he, as is known, had no art of oratory, leave alone theatrically exuberant expressions with hand and facial movements, for which Modi and BJP leaders are famous. He continued with his simple style of reading out written speeches without looking at the audiences. Yet, his fans kept cheering him up with slogans like “Naveen Patnaik, Zindabad”.
Modi and his brigade shouted the chorus, “Naveenbabu, your time is up”, to which he had a rather witty reply, “Modiji, I invite you to my swearing-in ceremony (as Chief Minister after the elections)”.
The BJP bigwigs repeated at all their rallies that Odisha would this time have a “double-engine” Government, meaning thereby that the State’s people would vote for BJP Governments both at the Centre and in the State. In response, Patnaik kept questioning them, “Tell me, why your ‘double-engines’ derailed in the recent elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan?” To this, Modi or his associates had no answer obviously.
Patnaik also cornered Modi and his fellow Union Ministers asking why they failed to visit Odisha and sympathise with its people in their times of misery during the natural calamities like cyclones, floods and droughts and why Modi has frequented the State ten times in a month during the election time. This poser also remained unanswered.
Referring to Modi’s assertion that Odisha would this time have a BJP Government, Patnaik also questioned.”Who is your Chief Ministerial face in Odisha.” And again obviously, there was no answer to this except Dharmendra Pradhan’s vague reply, “Each one of Odisha’s four and a half crore people is our Chief Minister candidate.”