BHUBANESWAR: The crushing defeat in the Nuapada by-election has reignited the discontent within the BJD with senior leaders demanding immediate and sincere introspection to understand the reasons behind the setback.
Former minister and veteran BJD leader Prafulla Samal said the loss has shaken the party, especially since former chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s personal popularity remains strong. The party president himself should lead a detailed internal review to identify gaps in strategy and organisation, he said.
Samal said, the miserable performance of the party was not acceptable and should not be treated lightly for the simple reason that BJD had won the election four successive times with good margin.
“There are ups and downs in everyone’s life. There are instances when chief ministers faced defeat in the by-election. We must not treat this loss as a mere rise and fall but rather conduct a sincere review, and party supremo Naveen Babu should lead this introspection,” he demanded.
Describing the defeat as a ‘disaster’, BJD’s Kendrapara MLA Ganeswar Behera said it was very difficult to digest that the party which had been at the top in the constituency for so long was relegated to the third position after Congress.
Asserting that party workers worked hard at the grassroots level, Behera said, “I stayed in Nuapada and campaigned for the party extensively. There was an excellent coordination between workers and leaders, and everyone had given their maximum effort for the victory of the party candidate. No one expected such a miserable result,” he said.
He, however, said voters of Nuapada had always given preference to the ruling party which could be the case this time too.
“But the winning margin of more than 83,000 votes is surprising. This calls for serious introspection and examination,” Behera said.
He also alleged that the election was not conducted in a free and fair manner.
“There was no level playing field as the officials of the Election Commission did not entertain our complaints on poll irregularities by the ruling BJP,” he said.