New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party leaders from Odisha are upset with their high command’s move to stitch an alliance with their principal rival, the Biju Janata Dal.
They have even conveyed their “strong” reservation against this to Union home minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda, two senior leaders have told ThePrint.
“Ever since the speculation about the alliance started, I have been getting calls from party workers. They are angry and frustrated. They say they have been telling the people about the misgovernance of the BJD all these years and fighting with the BJD workers and leaders on the ground. With what face will they go back to the people?” a BJP leader, a strong contender for a Lok Sabha party ticket, told ThePrint.
The BJP and the BJD were in alliance for over a decade until Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik pulled out of it ahead of the 2009 election.
The reason cited by the BJD was the communal riots following the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Laxmanananda Saraswati, who was engaged in anti-conversion drives. The riots had left over three-dozen people dead.
It was also seen as Patnaik’s strategy to get rid of the BJP whose leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pramod Mahajan were instrumental in the formation of the BJD in 1997. The two parties had been in an alliance since the 1998 Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP had emerged as the BJD’s principal challenger in the last Lok Sabha and assembly elections. As Patnaik continued to support the government in Parliament on most bills and enjoyed a good rapport with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP workers in Odisha also toned down their aggression on the ground.
Ahead of the 2019 assembly election, the BJP intensified its political activities in Odisha and dislodged the Congress as the principal opposition party by securing 23 seats as compared to the Congress’s 9 in the 147-member assembly. The BJD won 112 seats.
Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, the BJD won 12 seats, the BJP 8, and the Congress managed to secure only one.
During his visit to the state in 2022, Shah had told party leaders that they needed to aggressively counter the BJD. But it didn’t last long though. That the BJP changed its strategy again was evident from PM Modi’s praise of Patnaik during his last two visits. The PM chose to target the Congress instead. Addressing a rally in Odisha Tuesday, Modi targeted the Congress and the INDIA bloc over corruption, scams, governance and ‘parivarvad’ (dynastic rule).
“All eyes were on PM Modi and what he would say about the ruling party considering we have the assembly elections just round the corner, but he did not say a word on the Naveen Patnaik government. In all the other states, we have been concentrating on a double engine government but no such mention was made by the PM in the rally. Rather, he showered praises on Biju Patnaik and called Naveen Patnaik as the popular CM,” another state functionary said.
Growing bonhomie between the two parties also became evident when the BJD supported Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha for the second consecutive time.
“The cadre is completely confused, and it won’t be wrong to say that it is in fact demotivated. If we end up having an alliance with the BJD at the Lok Sabha and assembly election, it will be a big blow to the state leadership. All this while we have been questioning the state government and its policies, and now we are being told that we need to work in tandem with them,” said a senior BJP functionary from Odisha.
BJP state president Manmohan Samal told ThePrint that the state leadership was not aware of any discussion with the BJD over alliance. “Our state leadership and workers are preparing for Lok Sabha as well as assembly elections. We are not aware of this discussion, and it is the central leadership that takes a call,” he said.
Another senior party functionary said ‘there is huge anti-incumbency” against the Naveen Patnaik government and which is why it wants to enter into an alliance with the BJP. “They are the ones who are giving rise to such talks as they are aware of the ground situation. There is huge anti-incumbency against the government and an alliance will serve little purpose as far as BJP is concerned,” said the state leader.
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‘Helping Congress…’
The state leadership is also concerned that an alliance will turn the elections into a two-cornered contest rather than a triangular one which may end up benefiting the Congress. “Baith baithe hum mari hui Congress ko oxygen de rahein hai ye alliance karke (By forming this alliance, we are giving oxygen to the dead Congress). Our situation and their anti-incumbency is such that we can win the Lok Sabha as well as emerge victorious in the assembly elections too,” said the leader.
A party source pointed out that since the talks about a potential alliance has gained momentum, many leaders from the BJP and Congress have put their plan to switch sides on hold for now. “Senior leaders are getting erratic calls from the workers wanting to know what exactly is going on. There is complete chaos at the state level,” said the source.
Despite the reservation by the state leadership, a senior central leader said that if the central leadership is ‘keen’ to enter into an alliance, it would be based on the reports received about the state unit’s performance.
“The central leadership is collecting feedback from all quarters and if they are keen to have an alliance with the BJD it must be that the feedback received shows that the party at the state level is not in a good position to counter the BJD. For the BJP, the Lok Sabha elections are too crucial, and the party wants the NDA to cross the 400-mark, for which it needs allies like the BJD,” explained the leader.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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