Odisha: BJP state unit convenes state executive to chalk out 2024 plan 

By C.R.Beura

Bhubaneswar, May 19: The Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has convened an urgent one-day state executive meeting on Friday, amidst the buzz that the party is planning a “decisive political onslaught” against the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The meeting comes close on the heels of the  newly appointed state president Manmohan Samal meeting the party’s national chief JP Nadda in New Delhi a couple of days ago.

The BJP is struggling in the state to score good scores ever since it was shunted out of an 11-year-old alliance with the BJD. Though in 2019, it showed some semblance of revival by winning 8 Lok Sabha and 23 assembly seats, its fortune nosedived in the urban local body and rural polls.

In 2000, the BJP – then in an alliance with the BJD, had won 38 assembly of the 64 seats it contested at a strike rate (S/R) of 59.37 per cent. In 2004, it won 32 of the 64 seats contested at a strike rate of 50 per cent. In 2009, 2014 and 2019, it bagged 6, 10 and 23 seats, respectively.

Of the nine assembly bypolls held after 2019 twin elections for Lok Sabha and State Assembly, the saffron party has won only Dhamnagar in Bhadrak district. In fact, it retained this seat as it was represented by the party’s lawmaker Bishnu Sethi. The party lost its Balasore seat to BJD.

On the other hand, the BJD successfully retained Bijepur, Patkura, Pipili, Tirtol, Brajarajnagar, Padampur and Jharsuguda.

The BJP national president has appointed party’s veteran leader Sunil Bansal as Odisha observer to bring a turnaround in the fortunes of the sagging state unit.

Credited for his role in the BJP retaining power in Uttar Pradesh in 2022, Mr Bansal along with state in-charge D Purandeswari are currently studying the political tapestry of the state before unleashing an all-out war against the enigmatic Naveen Patnaik.

Despite an aggressive campaign in the state by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and almost all top BJP central leaders, the BJD has not only remained unruffled, but also grown in strength.  In 2014, the BJD’s vote share in assembly elections was 43.4 per cent while it increased to 44.71 per cent in 2019.