Odisha BJP looks northeast to find success at home

BHUBANESWAR: On Saturday, after the BJP swept to power in Tripura, ending the Left Front’s 25-year rule in the state, the state unit of the saffron outfit was in a celebratory mood. The heavy defeat in the recent Bijepur byelection had been consigned to history as the BJP started planning for the road ahead.
The parallels between chief minister Naveen Patnaik and Tripura’s Manik Sarkar were for all to see. Both leaders are known for their simple lifestyle and both have led their respective parties — the BJD and the CPM — to four successive terms in power. But Manik lost trying to guide the CPM to a fifth term under him. Come 2019, and Naveen will be making a similar attempt, and this is where the state BJP sees its moment.

Will the attempt for a fifth term in office turn out to be the albatross around Naveen’s neck as it has for Manik? The state BJP definitely thinks so. The BJP is also buoyed by president Amit Shah’s statement when he said the golden era of his party won’t arrive till it attains power in Odisha, West Bengal and Kerala. Taking a cue, Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram on Sunday said the political situation in Tripura is similar to what it is in Odisha.

“While Manik was chief minister for 20 years, Naveen has been CM for the past 18. Just like Tripura, youths here too want jobs. Farmers want better irrigation facilities, people want teachers in schools and doctors in hospitals, which are marred by vacancies. But Naveen’s stable government has failed to deliver all these. Anti-incumbency is huge and Congress is in tatters, paving the way for a BJP victory,” said Jual who campaigned extensively in Tripura where out of the 43 seats that the BJP won, 20 are tribal dominated.

Enthused, the state BJP now plans more ‘result oriented’ initiatives in Odisha keeping next year’s Lok Sabha and assembly elections in mind. The party is also not willing to give up on its ‘Mission 120,’ which is aimed at capturing at least 120 of the 147 assembly seats in the state.

The saffron party intends to identify and groom winnable candidates in all 147 seats and further strengthen its grassroots presence. In the current assembly, the BJP has 10 MLAs.

As the BJP works on its plan to expand its Odisha footprints, the BJD is planning to stay two steps ahead. The party’s primary focus now is to keep a lid on dissident activities within the party — an example of which was the appointment of Damodar Rout’s son Sambit Routray as state secretary of the BJD on Sunday.

To be seen as a party that keeps its promises, the Naveen government is planning to develop Bijepur as a model assembly segment by fast-forwarding the commissioning of the Rs 1250-crore irrigation project announced for it. “There would be massive course-correction in party and in government,” a BJD source said.

On BJP’s Odisha ambition, senior BJD leader and state’s agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy said lotus won’t bloom in Odisha because Naveen continues to move up in popularity charts. “I don’t know about other states, but Naveen will become the next CM in Odisha. BJP is daydreaming,” Pradeep said.