Crafty Naveen dons NDA colour to dent BJP votes!

Politics is the art of possible. And BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik displayed this so quite majestically when the BJD’s nine Rajya Sabha members voted in favour of NDA candidate and JD(U) MP Harivansh Narayan Singh for the chair of Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman, which, however morally, blurred the thin line of the BJD’s self-declared equidistance policy.

The significance of political vault by the BJD assumes a far-reaching political craft and electoral implications. Reviving the bandwagon of the JP movement, the BJD has laid out its future course of action clear to all and sundry. Moreover, the BJD’s Thursday vote and statements have come as no surprise for keen observers as the BJD keeps dipping its feet in NDA waters only a year back when CM Naveen Patnaik went to pay a courtesy visit to residence of former PM, BJP patriarch and NDA founder Atal Behari Vajpayee.

And the BJD spokespersons then had vaunted it as BJD being one of key founding members of NDA in 1998. Political analysts here have then missed in the words as they were mostly overtaken by the intensity of BJD – BJP tug of war here.

The BJD’s political vault has a prime political reason. Because, the BJD is a no naive party to simply make its NDA-inclination public and its move is not without any calculation, when politics is a described as a craft.

First, CM Patnaik not only has delivered a big statement to the BJP that ‘hey look, you won because I am here. So, pay attention to me’. By delivering so, the BJD supremo has played his cards well to blunt PM Modi’s supposed aggression against the BJD in Odisha during upcoming elections.

It needs reminding that prior to the RS Dy Chairman Election, PM Modi himself talked to Patnaik over phone to back NDA candidate Singh.

Even, BJP’s 120+ Chanakya, Amit Shah, also spoke to Patnaik, besides Bihar CM Nitish Kumar.  All the actions between top BJP-NDA-BJD leaders in full public knowledge suits the BJD very well as it would deliver an unambiguous message to Modi’s followers and the BJP voters in Odisha (as evidenced by across the spectrum opinion polls) that the BJD will readily extend its hand to NDA in the hour of need, especially at a time when Rahul-led Congress is galvanising an anti-Modi front in the country.

Also conscious of his image, the BJD supremo delivered the message to voters on ground here that his party is for stability and development, and he would not go for a rag-tag coalition whose supposed image is only to oust PM Modi.

Image-conscious Patnaik had also supported PM’s demonetisation drive despite murmurs in BJD camp and when opposition parties of all hue joined to launch a full-scale protest.

What would then be after-effect on Odisha’s politics? The BJD’s re-discovering of NDA lineage could dent BJP’s prospects here, which suits the BJD.

Ground surveys show that a significant chunk of youth populace and middle class has a leaning towards PM Modi’s image. It needs reminding that in 1998 BJD-BJP alliance banked on legacy of Biju Patnaik and charm of Vajpayee. With the BJD painting NDA colours now, it hopes to win them back when 2019 is a do- or- die elections for all stakeholders.

However, this action while would dim the BJP’s prospects, the Congress stands to gain as the party under president Niranjan Patnaik could go the whole hog to garner the so-called anti-BJD sentiment.