The success of Odisha BJP leaders like Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party’s national vice-president Baijayant “Jay” Panda in managing elections in Uttar Pradesh and Assam but their failure in shoring up the party’s sagging fortunes in their home state has raised quite a few eyebrows.
Pradhan was given the charge of UP elections by the BJP and he ensured a victory for the party. Similarly, the party had retained Assam in the last Assembly elections when Jay Panda was put in charge of the state. The former MP has also ensured an excellent victory for the BJP in the recently concluded Assam municipal elections.
However, neither of them could help the party break the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) stranglehold on Odisha. While in the last Assembly elections the BJP could manage just 22 seats against a target of 120 set by home minister Amit Shah, its performance in the recently held panchayat polls was even more disappointing with its zilla parishad tally coming down to a mere 42 from 297 in 2017 elections.
In the Assembly elections the BJP at least had the satisfaction of emerging as the main opposition party in Odisha but the outcome of the rural polls has left state party leaders embarrassed. Pradhan, who is seen as the face of BJP in Odisha, may seek to extricate himself from the panchayat debacle embarrassment by pointing out that he was busy with UP polls and had no opportunity to campaign in Odisha. The BJP even failed miserably in Pradhan’s home turf Angul district and won a single ZP seat.The ruling BJD steamrolled both the BJP and the Congress and established its supremacy in the panchayat polls by winning bulk of the zilla parishad seats in all the 30 districts of the state. The party increased its ZP tally to 766 from 476 in 2017. Political analysts attribute the failure of top state BJP leaders to breach the BJD’s fortress to their lack of charisma. “Be it Pradhan or Panda, none can match the popularity and charisma of chief minister Naveen Patnaik whose hold over the voters is complete,” said political analyst Ashutosh Mishra.
Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda. File photo
However, state BJP leaders, especially the acolytes of Pradhan, sought to gloss over the shortcomings of their seniors. “Panchayat elections have just concluded. We will introspect and see what went wrong for us. However, it would be wrong to put the blame for this on Pradhan who, being busy in UP, had no time to focus on Odisha,” said BJP spokesperson Golak Mohapatra.
But the BJP’s Baragarh MP Suresh Pujari was more forthright in analysing the defeat of the party. “We need to introspect why leaders from Odisha do well outside the state but fail to deliver in their home state. The fact is that we have failed to build a collective leadership that can produce results. Secondly the gap between top leadership and grass root workers is increasing in the state. We have also failed to translate the goodwill generated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi into votes,” Pujari told The Telegraph.
He said: “Until and unless we build ourselves as an effective and responsible Opposition, it will be tough for us to dislodge the Naveen Patnaik government. We need to introspect and analyse our mistakes instead of shifting blame on each other.”
What is more worrying for the party is that it failed to encash some crucial issues during the panchayat polls. For example, it could not take advantage of school teacher Mamita Meher murder controversy in Kalahandi district where it had won only two zilla parishad seats.
Pujari, who had earlier worked as BJP ‘Pravari’ (in-charge) for Bengal and Tripura, said: “Everywhere, the party has been able to build an effective collective leadership which inspires and motivates the cadres. We have not been able to do this in Odisha.”
He also remains worried about the internal squabbles of the BJP in Odisha.
On the other hand, BJP’s Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi told a news channel, “We have suffered a debacle in the panchayat election. We lacked a road map and clear strategy to win. We need a no-nonsense leadership in the state.”
With mounting criticism of state BJP leadership Odisha unit president Samir Mohanty’s days at the helm appear numbered. A Pradhan-acolyte he has failed to deliver. “The party will take a decision on the issue after the urban elections are over,” said an insider. Elections to the civic bodies including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur Municipal Corporations will be held on March 24.
