BHUBANESWAR: The BJP's Titanic in Odisha is sinking, and sinking fast. The humiliating defeat of the BJP in the Brajrajnagar bypoll is a wake up call to the Central leadership of the party to set the State organisation in order as the “leaderless and rudderless” party has been rendered directionless.
The BJP candidate Radharani Panda losing the election to BJD's Alka Mohanty is not the news, but her forfeiting security deposit and Congress candidate Kishore Patel coming second is the most worrying factor for the saffron party, which has been day-dreaming about dislodging the regional party from power.
Even as Opposition chief whip in the Assembly Mohan Majhi said that a bypoll is completely different from general election and will have no bearing on the 2024 polls, there is serious murmuring within the party organisation about the sinking ship.
While, the Brajrajnagar result has come as a huge morale booster for the Congress, it is also a sign that the grand old party is beginning to find its feet in the State again, and at the cost of BJP.
Summing up the crushing defeat, a BJP insider said, "The negative approach of the party towards a hugely popular Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik boomeranged. The voters rejected us because they didn't accept our narrative."
The BJP went to the voters singing praises of Narendra Modi government and his liberal financial assistance to Odisha in the last eight years with allegation that whatever coming from the Centre is being misutilised by the BJD government.
There was nothing convincing to win over the electorate as evident from the outcome of the bypoll, the sources added.Without a clear strategy on how to take on a formidable BJD, the BJP leaders of the State acted in cross purposes while the BJD functioned as an unit under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik leaving nothing to chance.
On the other hand, a handful of BJP leaders belonging to a particular camp were overseeing the electioneering process. Neither did they have the experience of election management nor were ready to listen to seniors who wasted their time without doing any campaigning.
The result could have been different had the BJP fought the by-election under a strong leadership who could at least match the towering personality of the BJD chief, said a BJP senior leader. "I am sure this hammering of BJP at the hands of the BJD will wake up the Central leadership to the sorry state of affairs of the party in Odisha and do the needful to bring it back on track," the leader said.