Silence reigns supreme at BJP, Cong Odisha offices after electoral defeats

BJD wins 89.89 per cent seats; BJP 4.93 per cent and Congress 4.34

BY Sukanta Kumar Mohanty

BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 1: Eerie silence prevailed on Tuesday, a day after the final counting votes, in the Opposition camps in Odisha as they fared very badly in the just concluded rural polls. Never ever in their recent past, did the two major national parties fare so miserably.

The strike rates or the seat conversion rates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress stood abysmally at 4.93 per cent and 4.34 per cent respectively, as against the ruling BJD’s  enviable 89.89 per cent. None of the top leaders of the two parties have yet claimed responsibility for their disastrous results, even though the two parties’ spokespersons held their nerves in television debates to defend their performances.

The BJP state headquarters office at Kharavela Nagar wore a desolate look on Tuesday as most of the office-bearers did not turn up for their daily work. Party’s state president Samir Mohanty also remained incommunicado for his reaction on the debacle.

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra attributed the party’s catastrophic fall to lack of coordination among the party leaders and complete absence of strategy.

“In 2017 rural polls, we had improved our Zilla Parishad tally to 297 seats from 36 in 2012 as we had made a complete strategy then. As far as I know, no meetings were held this time on election management. Nor the leaders worked together. I knew the party was going to fare very badly,” said Mohapatra.

He also blamed the party’s central leaders’ praise to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his government for the party’s worst performance.

While the campaign was in full-swing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had heaped praises on CM Naveen Patnaik during his speech on motion of thanks on the President’s address in the Parliament for ‘effective execution’ of mining reforms initiated by the Union government.

The Congress office at Mastercanteen Square also looked deserted as the party’s office-bearers were conspicuous by their absence.

Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik, while appearing on a television debate, said the BJD got a massive mandate as it rolled out many populist measures ahead of the polls.

“The BJD government rolled out many schemes and welfare measures ahead of the polls. Most of the voters were reached out by these schemes and hence they voted for the BJD,” said Mr Patnaik.