With Odisha facing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state assembly, the election campaign is going on in full swing across the state. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is set to file nomination for his traditional Hinjli assembly constituency in Ganjam district on April 30 but the date for his nomination for his second assembly constituency, Kantabanji, in western Odisha, is yet to be announced.
On Sunday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched his party’s campaign at Kendrapara while BJP National President J.P. Nadda addressed a public meeting at Berhampur the same day. The voting in the state will take place in phases starting from May 13 till June 1 and the fate of 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats will be decided when the votes are counted on June 4.
Patnaik has been the state’s CM since 2000 and is seeking his sixth tenure this time. BJP has been the main opposition party in the state since 2019, with Congress being relegated to the third position.
All three parties have been announcing names of candidates in phases. Congress has replaced its candidate Dulal Chandra Pradhan with former BJD minister Nagendra Pradhan, who joined the party recently. He will be up against BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Sambalpur. Other parties, including the Left and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, have very limited presence in the state.
BJD, an anti-Congress party with its origin from the former Janata Parivar, of which Naveen Patnaik’s father and former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik was a prominent member. After the latter’s death in 1997, the former was drafted by his father’s colleagues in the then Janata Dal at national and state level to contest the by-election from the newly vacant Lok Sabha seat. However, nobody would have guessed that the writer-turned-political novice continue to helm Odisha for the several decades. Patnaik not only formed BJD, a political party named after his father, he has also made Odisha a BJD fortress.
Patnaik holds the record of staying maximum years in power in the state and that career began in early 1998 when he joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet. The BJP-BJD alliance swept Odisha Lok Sabha polls that year and repeated the victory in 1999. Patnaik remained a minister during Vajpayee’s second term, following which he took over as Odisha Chief Minister in 2000, a post he held for five terms till 2024.
The BJD broke alliance with BJP ahead of the 2009 elections because of Sangh Parivar’s alleged involvement in Kandhamal communal riots in 2008. Patnaik continued to counter all national waves whether it was the Congress-led UPA in 2004 and 2009 or the Narendra Modi led-NDA in 2014 and 2019. Though BJD claimed that it is maintaining equal distance from Congress and BJP, the ruling party in Odisha has continued to help the saffron party when it comes to national issues inside and outside the Parliament as well as during the Presidential elections.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, a former Odisha-cadre IAS officer, was elected on BJP ticket with BJD support from Odisha twice. However, an alliance between BJD and BJP during the ongoing elections could not materialise, with BJD and BJP facing each other similar to the 2019 scenario.
Rahul Gandhi, during his Sunday visit to Odisha, claimed that BJD and BJP were working in tandem in the state despite lack of a formal alliance. “Call it a partnership or marriage, both BJD and BJP are together,” he said. Rahul alleged that PM Narendra Modi runs government from Delhi for billionaires while Patnaik runs government for “select people” in Odisha. Though Patnaik is the chief minister, the BJD government in the state is being run by his aide V.K. Pandian. In an apparent reference to PM Modi, Rahul said, “Uncle-ji and Naveen Babu have given Odisha to PAANN meaning Pandian, Amit Shah, Narendra Modi, Naveen Patnaik. They have looted your wealth.”
On Sunday, BJP chief Nadda also addressed his party’s Vijay Sanklpa Samavesh at Berhapur, where he called for a change of government in the state. “This government needs to be changed. The people of Odisha are left out of Ayushman Bharat Yojana. Such a government should not exist. Despite having an opposition government, Modi has given maximum grants to Odisha. Rail budget for the state has been increased by 12 times with 25 railway stations under construction at a cost of Rs 550 crores,” he said.
Nadda slammed the BJD government for instituting a ‘Babu Raj’ in Odisha, voicing his concern over the influx of outsiders introduced by Patnaik and encouraged the people to "resist foreign rule". He asked the sitting government whether the people of Odisha are incompetent that it has to hire outsiders.
On April 25, Union Home Minister Amit Shah while launching BJP’s election compaign in the state, asked the people of the state to uproot the government and help form Odisha’s first BJP government for a faster development and restoration of state’s language and cultural glory. Describing Patnaik’s tenure since 2000 as "lost years", he said, “The government here not only hindered the state’s progress but also allowed corrupt officials to distance Odisha from its linguistic and cultural heritage while states with BJP-led governments were scaling new heights of development.
Exuding confidence that BJP will get 20 out 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state and significantly contribute to the party’s ‘400 paar’ dream, Shah said, “The party will also get a majority in Vidhan Sabha and form a government on its own.” Shah’s attack on Patnaik reflects BJP’s more critical attitude towards BJD after the alliance talks failed to materialise. The venue of the home minister’s first meeting in the state was significant as it comes under Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency where the chief minister’s proposed new second constituency Kantabanji is located.
Patnaik had developed the Puri Parikrama project around Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri which was consecrated before Ayodhya’s Ram temple inauguration. Pointing out this, Shah accused Patnaik of trying to divert people’s attention from Ayodhya project. He said the state government has lowered the dignity of the religious place to promote tourism and promised to redevelop Puri along the lines of Kashi Viswanath temple in Uttar Pradesh.
Later meeting partymen at Bhubaneswar, Shah said Odisha needs to have a healthy, young and clear Odia speaking Chief Minister.
Earlier, PM Modi had also reiterated the issues raised by the BJP, saying, “Odisha’s pride and the Odia language are in danger. I don’t think Odisha’s people will tolerate it for a long time.” He also said, “In such a situation, we think we should get the chance to serve Odisha. If we get the chance, we will take Odisha to the peak of development. Odisha could have become richest state in the country with abundant resources.”
