BHUBANESWAR: With an early election buzz in the air, the Biju Janata Dal dropped enough hints of its readiness as Chief Minister and party supremo Naveen Patnaik on Thursday got into a huddle with senior leaders to review the result of Padampur bypoll and discuss strategy for the ensuing election.
After the meeting, the ruling party said it has resolved to replicate the Padampur model in the entire state during the next election. Naveen met senior party leaders, mostly those assigned Padampur by-election charge. The strategy followed by the leaders which resulted in such a handsome win for party candidate Barsha Singh Bariha was discussed threadbare in the meeting.
Despite being on a slippery turf in Padampur, BJD not only put its organisational affairs in order but also put out a strong, united show in face of an aggressive challenge from the BJP. This, however, was not the case with Dhamnagar which the ruling party lost to BJP.
In Padampur, BJD’s organisational base was weak and neglected for a long period during the tenure of Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha as MLA. Besides, there was little development to show in the constituency for close to two decades, a major part of which was represented by Bariha in the Assembly. In the 2019 election, Bariha had managed to win by 5,734 votes. This time, BJD retained the seat and increased the margin to more than 42,000 votes. “The party has decided to follow the Padampur model in the next election,” senior BJD leader Pradip Majhi told mediapersons.
During the meeting, the chief minister queried about the promises made by leaders at the constituency level and whether those have been fulfilled. He advised the leaders to give priority to organisational matters of the party. Senior party leader Prasanna Acharya said the CM will visit Padampur in January as promised and review development work of the constituency.