As chairman of the BJP’s election campaign committee, can Narendra Modi make an impact on the voters in Odisha, so far considered as the fort of the Naveen Patnaik-led BJDIJ
The question is doing the rounds ever since Modi visited Bhubaneswar and Puri on July 16. During his visit, he refrained from making any attack on any person or party. He even did not take the name of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had not only broken the BJD’s alliance with the saffron party before the 2009 elections but recently remarked that Modi as a Prime Ministerial candidate is not acceptable to the nation as a whole.
A seasoned politician as he is, Gujarat Chief Minister Modi did not react to the statement Patnaik had made immediately after Modi’s elevation as chairman of the BJP campaign committee that “Modi is not accepted as a leader across the country.”
But though Modi did not open his mouth about Patnaik, his actions seemed to aim at proving Patnaik wrong. During his meeting with the media in front of the lion’s Gate of Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri, Modi preferred to speak in Odia language and lauded the enterprising quality of Odias in contributing to Gujarat’s development. His Odia was acknowledged as better than that of the Chief Minister of Odisha, who still struggles with the language even after ruling the State for 14 long years.
BJP State leaders are elated that Modi was given a rousing welcome both at the Bhubaneswar airport and then at Puri. The Jagannath devotees who had thronged Puri jostled among themselves to have a glimpse of Modi. The grand response to Modi in Odisha indicates that he is “acceptable” across the country, said a BJP leader here.
On the claim of Gujarat’s economic development under Modi’s leadership, Patnaik had recently remarked that the credit should go to the people of Gujarat who are “enterprising”. In his obvious bid to prove Patnaik wrong, Modi profusely thanked the people of Odisha for their contributions to Gujarat’s economy. “There is no district or block in Gujarat where Odia people are not working. They have been instrumental to the growth of Gujarat’s economy,” Modi said.
In other words, Modi wanted to give the message that like their counterparts in Gujarat, people of Odisha are also hardworking and enterprising and it is for Odisha’s leadership to channelise Odias’ enterprise to the State’s development.
Modi, to whom the Congress is the real enemy, knows it well that though the BJD may not forge an alliance with the BJP before the next elections, he is not sure whether Patnaik will not change his mind after the elections when the exercise of formation of Government at the Centre will begin. Further, Patnaik is close to Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa, who is also close to Modi.
Modi this time may take help of about the five lakh Odias living in Gujarat, a majority of whom hail from Ganjam, which is Patnaik’s home district and from where he has been contesting elections.
However, Modi’s plans and strategy would work only if BJP State leaders work in tandem. The differences in the State unit are clearly visible after KV Singh Deo took over as its president. Senior leaders like Jual Oram and Bimbadhar Kuanr and others are not seen in party programmes. The bitterly anti-Naveen Patnaik faction now dominates the BJP State leadership. Time would tell how far Modi can influence Patnaik.