BHUBANESWAR: Back to back defeat of the BJP at the hands of a formidable BJD in the recent by-poll to Bijepur followed by two urban local bodies has raised serious doubt on the “Mission 120” of BJP president Amit Shah. As the election to State Assembly and Lok Sabha, which will be held simultaneously, is only a year away, the saffron party’s drubbing in the recent elections has not only changed the political narrative in the State but also dampened the spirit of the party workers. With the ruling BJD rapidly making up its lost ground after the panchayat election last year, the booth level contact programme launched by Shah with much fanfare last year to strengthen the party organisation at grassroots level failed to achieve the desired result as it is evident from the recent elections.
What has shocked the analysts is the manner in which BJP was routed contrary to expectations that it would make further ground. “The party’s morale is pretty low after the recent debacle in Attabira and Hindol NAC (notified area council) elections. Though we have the self-satisfaction of increasing our vote shares, we are way behind BJD. The BJP needs some serious introspection to find out the reasons why it failed,” said a senior BJP functionary on condition of anonymity. Admitting that his party lacks a leader who could match up to the popularity of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and inspire the voters, the BJP leader said his party has not given a serious thinking to Bijepur defeat and chalked out strategies to check the BJD juggernaut.
Though Shah during his recent visit to the State held separate meetings with district functionaries and vistarks of eight western Odisha districts, considered to be the stronghold of BJP, State office bearers and core committee members at Kalahandi, he did not discuss the Bijepur failure. If sources in the BJP are to be believed, the party president did not take stock of the organisational matters which he did during his last visit to the State in September last year.
A review by him could have given an opportunity to the district level functionaries to explain where the party went wrong and the corrective measures required. In the wake of the party’s defeat in Bijepur by-poll, speculations are rife about a possible change in the BJP’s State leadership. This is gaining more currency after the humiliating performance of the saffron party in two NAC polls and more so, after change of its general secretary (organisation) Sharda Satpathy. While the saffron party had managed to put up a strong show by eating into the Congress vote share in the panchayat polls, why it has failed to replicate it in the NAC elections has baffled many.