BHUBANESWAR: Even as a Modi wave swept the entire nation pushing the BJP to second place in Odisha, Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik again bucked the trend by leading the regional outfit to a resounding victory in the State.
It was a Modi versus Naveen fight in Odisha from the beginning where political parties did not matter.
Like Modi elsewhere in the country, people voted for Naveen in Odisha to put their stamp of approval on the Chief Minister who is going to be sworn in again for the fifth consecutive time.
Achieving such a feat in 2014 elections may partially be attributed to the poor organisational base of the saffron party then in Odisha. However, repeating such a feat again in 2019 in a more emphatic manner in the face of repeated visits by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team in the run-up to the polls has stumped both the BJP camp and political pundits.
Such was the impact of Naveen’s magic that dropping of candidates, reshuffling constituencies of nominees and bringing in complete new faces did not matter. It was just brand Naveen which mattered. Or else, how can one explain the overwhelming victory of Primila Bisoyi from Aska Lok Sabha constituency by a huge margin of 2,04,707 votes.
One may also take the case of Finance Minister Sashi Bhusan Behera. Fielded from the Kendrapara Assembly constituency at the last moment, Behera won against his Congress rival Ganeswar Behera by 6,320 votes. The Finance Minister had won the 2014 polls from the Jayadev Assembly seat. There are several other such instances where complete new faces have won only because of the Naveen wave.
Knowing that the 2019 elections will be different because of the increased focus of BJP on Odisha, the Chief Minister converted the elections to a personality battle with a hectic campaign schedule which included 150 meetings across the State besides roadshows. There was also extensive use of the social media portraying Naveen as the sole face of the party.
The fact that the BJP did not announce any chief ministerial candidate in Odisha, though Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan was unofficially projected by the party leadership, also helped Naveen. Besides he was the only leader with a pan-Odisha presence who was popular among all sections of voters.
Naveen also cultivated women as a separate constituency by increasing the funding for women self-help groups (WSHGs) and fielding one third women candidates for Lok Sabha.
Besides, Naveen campaigned for reservation of one-third seats in state legislatures and Parliament for which he was able to build a pro-women image.
Political observers maintain that his pro-women measures including several welfare schemes specially designed for them were able to counter whatever anti-incumbency was there at the ground level against the BJD Government.
The 2019 victory of Naveen was overwhelming as BJD not only stood its ground by losing only five Assembly seats compared to 2014 elections, the regional outfit’s vote share increased to 44.71 per cent in 2019 from 43.4 per cent in 2014.