A senior MP of Odisha's ruling BJD says the Central government was not a BJP government or NDA government, but it was a Modi government.
Speaking to THE WEEK, Tathagata Satpathy, chief whip of his party, said, “You cannot call the present Central government as the BJP government or NDA government. It’s clearly the Modi government.”
When asked for his party's stance on opposition unity against the BJP at the Centre, Satpathy said
“The Central government is not suffering because of the greater opposition unity. It’s suffering due to the problems within. It has clearly invited trouble by giving false promises and duping people.”
He did not give a direct answer to whether BJD would join any front against BJP in the future.
Satpathy disagreed with the view that Naveen Patnaik could rescue Narendra Modi in case the BJP was not able to secure a clear majority in the general elections as the Odisha CM had supported some policies of Modi.
He said, “Few years back while separating from BJP, our leader, Naveen Patnaik, had maintained the policy of equidistance from BJP and Congress. As far as I know him (Patnaik), there is no deviation from such a policy.”
Satpathy's plain speaking came at a time when BJP has already started a huge campaign in Odisha as part of its 'look-east' policy. Despite the Karnataka election campaign being in full swing, Amit Shah, BJP’s national president, is touring extensively the 'hunger belt' of Odisha comprising districts such as Kalahandi, Koraput, Bolangir and Kandhamal.
Basanta Panda, BJP’s state unit chief, told THE WEEK, “Amitji is talking to party workers at the grassroots level and energising them to fight against the BJD government. He told us we would have to come to power in 2019 in Odisha and along with that deliver most of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.”
In last year’s panchayat election, the BJP swept the local body polls in the hunger belt by securing maximum number of Zila Parishads. In 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJP secured 22 per cent of the total votes, while Congress stood second with 27 per cent of votes. BJD secured highest vote share of around 45 per cent of votes.
However, out of the 21 seats, BJP stood second in nine seats. It’s to be seen whether BJP could gain because of the slide in Congress votes since 2014.
“The party is working hard to shift the maximum votes of the Congress to BJP. Only then, we could give BJD a major blow,” said a BJP leader in Odisha.