Bhubaneswar: If the
Narendra Modi government beat the anti-incumbency wave and rode back to power, Chief Minister
Naveen Patnaik did so even more formidably in
Odisha.
Beating four terms of anti-incumbency and the Modi wave, the Patnaik-led BJD came to power with a nearly 2% increase in vote share, securing 113 seats in the 147-member assembly –– just four short of its 2014 tally. The BJP may have risen to the second spot but it did not make much of a dent into Patnaik’s vote bank, especially among women voters.
Those who’ve known him over the past two decades say he has a sharp political instinct and is known for his meticulous planning – “act in haste, repent at leisure” is a favourite warning he gives his colleagues. “This is a man who has not taken a single holiday in 22 years (ever since Patnaik joined politics). His extraordinary commitment to the people of Odisha is without match,” said Puri MP
Pinaki Misra. It is his prescient reading of the country’s mood that steered the BJD to avoid the Modi-naysayers. The BJD’s previous term began with corruption allegations, an agrarian crisis and dissent from within the party. Seeing the BJD lose its grip after the 2017 rural polls, Patnaik took firm control of the political narrative. Well-publicised events were spun out one after another such as the star-studded Hockey World Cup and the investment meet that had the country’s top industrialists speaking highly of Patnaik.
The party president, who hadn’t campaigned for the panchayat polls, reached out directly to every block through video conference. The ‘Ama Gaon Ama Vikas’ (our village, our development) programme created new ward committees, roping in panchayat representatives and grassroots-level BJD workers. Peetha – a governance-at-your doorstep programme – allowed villagers to express their grievances in their neighbourhood and this helped douse any resentment unaddressed by local representatives.
For a jet-setting socialite, far removed from the realities of Odisha which is notoriously poor and ravaged by cyclones, Patnaik’s unflinching focus was on “improving the lot of the poor”. This resulted in many welfare schemes that covered every milestone in the lives of the poor, who even get a state-sponsored funeral. Critics may complain about the government’s over-dependence on these schemes as the state’s finances are precariously stretched. But it clearly delivered political dividends.
Patnaik, accused of usurping all the credit for centrally-assisted schemes like Rs 1 a kilo rice and resisting Modi government’s pet schemes, launched his own free health coverage, extended the state coverage to those left out of the central food security scheme, and pre-empted the Centre with its own farm subsidy scheme right before the polls. Key to Patnaik’s success have been Odisha’s women, especially the 70-lakh members of self-help group under ‘Mission Shakti’ programme. Their loyalty made Patnaik nominate women to a third of the LS seats – six of the seven women who stood for polls are now headed to Parliament.