Odisha: Opposition BJP ignites political fire, ruling BJD adds fuel

BHUBANESWAR: War of words between the BJD and BJP intensified during the year as the two major political parties in Odisha prepared for the 2019 polls. The political debate started ever since the saffron party emerged as a serious challenge to the ruling party in the State after the panchayat polls in February. The panchayat poll also saw the main opposition in the State, Congress relegated to third position.
The panchayat polls served as a wake up call for BJD which ruled the State almost unchallenged for 17 years. A resurgent BJP aggressively pursuing Mission 120+ set by party president Amit Shah forced the BJD leaders, including party supremo Naveen Patnaik to change their style of functioning.

Though by-poll to the Bijepur Assembly constituency is yet to be announced, it has now become the battle ground for the two parties to show supremacy. As a parting shot to 2017, the BJP will take Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Man Ki Baat’ to all the 270 booths of the constituency on Sunday. Visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shah more than once this year underlined the party’s focus on Odisha.
As the BJP leaders became more vocal, Naveen’s style of functioning also changed perceptively. The Chief Minister became more active on social media with a record number of followers on Twitter among political leaders in Odisha and took selfies to make himself more accessible to all sections of people, particularly the youth.

BJD celebrated its 20th foundation day on December 26 in a grand manner at Puri with development and Central neglect as its planks to counter a growing BJP. The meeting of the State Cabinet was also held at Puri for the first time outside the State Capital as part of the foundation day celebrations. There was a conscious effort on the part of BJD to deify Naveen which was evident during his departure to New Delhi for a tripartite meeting over Mahanadi river water dispute and also upon his return after receiving the best administrator award from Outlook magazine. 

The Mahanadi river water dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh was at the centrestage of political discourse throughout the year with the State Government taking strong exception to Centre’s decision not to form a tribunal to adjudicate the matter. With the failure of negotiations between Odisha and Chhattisgarh to resolve, the BJD took to the streets demanding formation of a tribunal. The demand for raising the minimum support price (MSP) of paddy for which the State Assembly also passed an unanimous resolution and the House Committee headed by Assembly Speaker not given an appointment by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to meet Narendra Modi over the issue also witnessed heated exchanges between political parties.

Days after BJP held its national executive in Bhubaneswar in April, as a part of its  aggressive ‘Look East’ plan, Naveen and West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee met  here in the Capital setting political circles abuzz with talks on a possible ‘grand alliance’ of regional political parties. Even Naveen’s meetings with Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav did add fuel to the fire. However, the Chief Minister dismissed all such talks reiterating the BJD’s stand of equi-distance between the Congress and BJP.

The CM also effected the biggest reshuffle in the history of  BJD’s 17 years rule by dropping 10 ministers and inducting 10 new ministers, 6 of whom were new faces. Naveen also dropped senior BJD leader Damodar Rout from the Cabinet and stripped him from all party posts towards the end of the year following controversial remarks against the Brahmins.Congress remained a divided house throughout the year with a powerful section, including majority of MLAs demanding ouster of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan and restructuring of the State unit. Though the then Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi held a number of meetings with senior State Congress leaders over the issue at New Delhi the issue is yet to be settled.