Jerks: BJD wakes up to ward off BJP revival in Odisha
In 2009, the BJD unceremoniously broke ties with the BJP after sharing a coalition of 11 years, dubbing the saffron party as “communal.” Ever since, the BJP has been seething in anger and looking for an opportunity to avenge the humiliation.
By Prabhat Kumar Singh
Bhubaneswar, Oct. 3: As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) makes its last ditch effort to do better in Odisha assembly elections in 2024 and capture power in the state, the Naveen Patnaik-led ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has stepped up its activities to ward off any such possibility.
The regional party, which has been growing over the years ever since it came to power in the state since 2000, has completely revamped the organisation in the past four months and is leaving no stone unturned to push the saffron party to the brink.
In the crucial gram panchayat elections held early this year, the BJD got 52 per cent votes, almost a 10 per cent jump over its 2019 assembly polls performance. On the other hand, the BJP in the rural polls slumped to 27 per cent votes from 32 per cent it polled in 2019 assembly elections.
The revamping of the organisation started on June 26 with appointment of observers for all the 30 districts. On August 18, the party appointed six senior leaders as senior observers to oversee the work the observers.
On September 27, the ruling BJD appointed chairpersons for nine tribal-dominated districts apparently to give a boost to the socio-economic development of the scheduled tribe ahead of the elections. Most of the tribal communities in the state which in the past formed the vote bank of the BJP have shifted their allegiance to the BJD.
As the BJP state unit on September 29 brought the party’s national president J.P. Nadda to Odisha to boost the morale of the party workers, the regional party hurriedly organised a workshop to ensure that the saffron party does not walk away with all the media space. While J.P. Nadda was addressing the BJP workers and leaders at Janata Maidan ground, Naveen addressed his party’s meeting at Baramunda ground here in the city.
On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on Sunday, the BJD launched a month-long statewide padayatra in the state to further strengthen the organisation.
In 2009, the BJD unceremoniously broke ties with the BJP after sharing a coalition of 11 years, dubbing the saffron party as “communal.” Ever since, the BJP has been seething in anger and looking for an opportunity to avenge the humiliation. However, poor organisation strength at the grassroots has always put spanner on its mission.
In 2019, the BJP won only 23 of the 147 assembly seats in Odisha while the ruling BJD retained power with 113 seats. The Congress was content with 9 seats only.
