BHUBANESWAR: After making massive inroads into the North-Eastern states and registering a landslide victory in UP after a gap of 26 years, the Bharatiya Janata Party has made its first decisive push in Odisha by deciding to hold its national executive committee meeting in Bhubaneswar.
Riding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s growing popularity following his demonetisation move, national BJP president Amit Shah has shifted his focus to the State where a spectacular success in the recent panchayat elections has not only led to the resurgence of the saffron party but also raised its hopes for an ascent to power.
Though the national executive committee meeting of the party was scheduled to be held at Lucknow to celebrate its victory in Uttar Pradesh, sources in the State BJP said, the decision to shift the venue to Bhubaneswar was taken by Shah himself with eyes set on the 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The national executive committee, which meets every three months was last held in Odisha in 1997.
BJP’s focus on the State is part of the Look East Policy of PM Modi who, in one of the three rallies he attended in the State last year, had said that economic growth of India is not possible without developing eastern states like Odisha.
While BJP’s “Sab Ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas” campaign reaped huge dividend in UP, it is following a similar model for Odisha, which has been designated as the party’s political laboratory for development experiments. The thrust on Rs 1.25 lakh crore petrochemical complex in Paradip and launch of the Rs 5,750 crore City Gas Distribution Project of GAIL in Odisha have been strategic to the party’s plans for the State.
Its aggressive posturing against the Naveen Patnaik government on corruption, scams, malnutrition deaths and even water sharing with Chhattisgarh apart, the party has been relentless in highlighting the renewed focus that Odisha has received under NDA regime through the allocation under 14th Finance Commission, Railway Budget and Ujjwala Scheme.
With BJD facing anti-incumbency after being in power for 17 years and Congress facing an existential crisis, BJP wants to capitalise on its gain in the panchayat elections where it won 297 out of 846 Zilla Parishad seats.
Shah, the master strategist and the main architect of the BJP’s rapid growth in the country, has reportedly chalked out his strategy for the State for the 2019 general elections. As part of its strategy, the BJP has already started work on the ground to strengthen the organisations.
The national executive meeting will not only discuss the recent victories and future challenges, it will also set the tone for civic elections next year.
After enrollment of a record number of over 30 lakh members in the State unit of the party, Shah is meticulously adding muscles to the BJP organisation in the State. Besides, the panchayat poll results have led to the emergence of Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan in stature, which can now be to compared to Naveen for the first time as both Congress and BJP had failed in the past to provide an alternative chief ministerial face to the voters.
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram too cannot be ignored at the same time given the fact that he represents the tribal face of BJP in Odisha where 22 per cent of the population is tribal.
It would not be surprising if BJP employs its UP election strategies where the party went to the polls with three different leaders projected as CM candidates for a united effort but eventually chose Yogi Adityanath at the end.