The party office of the Odisha unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party wore a deserted look on Sunday with the trends emerging on the second day counting of the Zilla Parishad (ZP) election showing that its political ascent came a full circle in the State.
Though party spokespersons on television screens put up brave faces attributing routing of the party in the ZP election to money and muscle power used by the ruling Biju Janata Dal, eerie silence prevailed in the war-rooms of the BJP.
Of the 314 seats — counting of which was completed on Saturday — the BJD won 281, cornering close to 90% seats while the BJP and the Congress had to content with 15 and 14 seats respectively.
Of the 619 of the 851 seats in which counting had entered a decisive phase by evening, the BJD either won or took a lead in 550 seats with a striking rate of 89%. The BJP and the Congress were trailing with win and lead in 32 and 30 seats respectively. Percentage of their leads was hovering around 5.
Demoralising performance
The performance of the BJP in the ongoing rural election is being dubbed demoralising for the party which had won 297 ZP seats in 2017. Though the BJD had then won more than 50% seats the election, it was said to be a lacklustre performance given the dominance of the regional party. The Congress had then managed only 60 seats.
Pumped up by its show in 2017, the BJP had launched itself to challenge Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led BJD. Even political pundits had then termed it as rise of BJP in eastern India which was focus of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The rural poll trend showed that BJP was badly losing its bastion in western Odisha districts such as Kalahandi, Bargarh, Subarnapur, Sambalpur, Deogarh and Balangir and northern Odisha district of Mayurbhanj.
Such has been the slide for the BJP in the rural poll that it had formed Zilla Parishad and won Member of Parliament seat in Kalahandi. Of the 36 seats in the district, the BJD was set to win 23 and the BJP was leading in two seats. One went to the Congress. BJD leaders said the party would do even better when counting would begin in rest of the seats. Similar is the situation in all eight Lok Sabha constituencies won by the BJP in the last general elections.
Soon after 2017 rural poll, Central Ministers, including PM Mr. Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, visited the State at frequent intervals, sensing an opportunity to take Odisha to its fold.
internal factionalism
Though it had won eight seats in last general election, the party gradually started losing its the base, largely due to internal factionalism.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan may be a senior leader at the Centre, the party had always pitted him against Odisha CM. This time Mr. Pradhan did not come to campaign for the rural poll as he was busy in the crucial Uttar Pradesh election. The BJP fared badly in Mr. Pradhan’s home district – Angul. Of the 28 ZP seats in the district, the BJD was leading in 15 while the BJP was distant second at one seat.
In Mayurbhanj, home district of Bisweshwar Tudu, State Minister for Tribal Affairs and Jal Shakti, the BJP has failed to open its account.
Absent from scene
Other senior leaders such as Jual Oram, former Union Tribal Affairs Minister; Manmohan Samal, former Revenue and Disaster Management Minister and Bijoy Mohapatra, a veteran leader in coastal Odisha were conspicuous by their absence from the scene.
For reasons best known to the BJP, when Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi started touring other districts trying to meet district leaders, she reportedly faced opposition from within the party. Besides, the praise for the BJD government by the PM and other senior BJP Ministers also sent a wrong signal for the party workers on the ground.
In 2012 rural poll, the BJD had won 651 ZP seats while the Congress candidates came victorious in 126 seats and the BJP in only 36.
Now the BJP is staring at a possibility of going back to 2012 position. It may face even more embarrassing situation if the party would go on to win similar seats like the Congress, which was almost written off by experts.
