The panchayat poll setback and growing dissent in the BJD, coupled with the BJP pulling out all the stops to wrest power in The 2019 polls, have veritably caused some worry in the BJD circles.
Though on Friday BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik dismissed the BJP’s claim of any impact of the two-day national executive committee meeting of the saffron party in Bhubaneswar on April 15 and 16, the worry line was clearly visible.
For the BJD, the real worry is not the BJP unit in Odisha, but the way it is basking in the glory of its central leaders and especially of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and trying to fast firm up its grip over Odisha as an alternative.
The Odisha BJP has not projected a Chief Minister candidate as yet, and much like it did in UP, it is projecting PM Modi as its leader against Patnaik.
“Odisha needs Narendra Modi,” said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra here on Friday while addressing a Press meet. BJP national media-in-charge Anil Baluni, who accompanied Patra, said there is massive mandate for Modi across the country and the people of Odisha would vote BJP to power in 2019 since they want Modi.
The BJP’s choice of Odisha for holding the national executive meet, where PM Modi will stay in the State for the two days, proves how the party wants take on the ruling BJD by keeping Modi at the forefront. Clearly, it is a Modi versus Naveen call from the BJP in Odisha.
Ahead of the BJP meet, the Union Ministers will visit different parts of Odisha to review execution of various Central schemes and submit their reports to the PM. The Ministers are also scheduled to meet the party functionaries at the grassroots. Besides, most importantly, the Central Government authorities will meet the State authorities over implementation of the Central schemes in Bhubaneswar.
The BJD has resented the mixing up of the BJP party meet with the governance matter of Odisha.