BHUBANESWAR: If the early trends in the counting of votes to 315 zilla parishad (ZP) zones are any indication, Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik has once again demolished the dreams of the saffron party of coming to power in the State in the near future.
With the BJD heading for a clean sweep and the Congress improving its position, the BJP’s claim of improving its 2017 tally has not only fallen flat but also exposed the growing divide among the top leaders of the party. What has come as a shock to the BJP is that the BJD has made massive inroads in western Odisha and some other pockets where the saffron party had a strong base.
The few tribal districts including Mayurbhanj which had been favouring the BJP have also shown the door to the party.
“The inevitable has happened. We were no match for the BJD from the beginning. The top leaders left the State BJP president Samir Mohanty and his team in the lurch when their assistance was needed the most,” summed up a party insider.
On the poor performance of the party in western Odisha, he said this is primarily due to two reasons. There has been resentment among the people for not taking any of the MPs in the Union council of ministers. Had the State party president been from western Odisha, things could have been different.
The dominance of coastal Odisha leaders in the party structure has not gone well with them. Since key leaders from western Odisha are kept out of the decision-making process, a gulf is bound to happen and the poll result is for everyone to see.
“The BJP fought this election without any top leaders who could match the stature of the Chief Minister. All the MPs were indifferent to this election from the beginning. In a nutshell, there was no coordination among the party and its leaders,” said another State functionary.
The 2017 elections were fought under the leadership of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The party fought the election unitedly and the booth committees, the major driving force during electioneering, worked in the most dedicated manner. This was visibly missing this time.