Getting cosy but not ready for a partnership

BJP has praised the BJD government of Naveen Patnaik in Odisha for making improvements on various fronts even as it has criticised it on a range of other issues. Both parties also deny they will tie up for the panchayat elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Naveen Patnaik-led government in Odisha seem to be getting cosy.

Last Thursday, at the Make in Odisha conclave in Bhubaneswar, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley complimented Odisha for reducing poverty by half in less than two decades and clocking a growth rate above the national average of nine per cent. He cited political stability in the state as one of the factors for its achievements.

Jaitley’s remarks appeared to praise the Naveen Patnaik government, which has been in power in the state for four consecutive terms.

A day before, the Centre has drafted Patnaik into a committee set up to oversee India’s transition to a cashless economy. Many are asking if this is the BJP’s way of reciprocating Patnaik’s gesture of backing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move. This, at a time when Patnaik’s counterparts in West Bengal and Delhi, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, respectively, have criticised Modi for the way demonetisation is being carried out.

In fact, Jaitley went on record appreciating Patnaik for his support to demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax Bill. From the Make in Odisha venue, Jaitley and Patnaik rode together and had a late lunch at the chief minister’s residence, Naveen Nivas.

There is speculation that the BJP and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), once coalition partners before they fell out in 2009, might be on track to rekindle their old friendship. Some political pundits agree. They cite a recent rally of BJP President Amit Shah in Bhubaneswar where he said the Patnaik government had failed on the development front but stopped short of attacking it on the issue of corruption. He even avoided talking about the chit fund and mining scams in the state.

“Shah’s silence on the chit fund scam in which the role of many BJD leaders is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation is surprising,” said Rabi Das, a political analyst.

Das, however, said the bonding might not augur well for the BJP. “The show of camaraderie by BJP’s national leaders towards Patnaik, which may be inferred from the visits of Union minister Nitin Gadkari and Jaitley now, to Naveen Nivas, will hurt the party’s interests in the state,” he said. “With panchayat election coming up in the state, Patnaik will play this up to demoralise the state BJP, which has upped its ante against the BJD and its chief.”

One of the BJD’s poll planks for the panchayat election is “central neglect” on a range of issues — starting from the Centre’s inability to stop construction of dams on River Mahanadi in Chhattishgarh, halting of work on the Polavaram dam to discontinuation of some centrally-assisted schemes and the announcement of a special package for Odisha.

For a regional party that is not part of the ruling coalition at the Centre and runs its own government in Odisha, criticising the BJP for most of the problems in the state is a convenient way to sway the electorate. The BJP is aware of this strategy but it also needs the support of regional parties such as the BJD. This is the angle Patnaik is exploiting.

An alliance between the two parties, therefore, might still be farfetched, said Das.

There was no question of alliance with the BJD, said state BJP VicePresident Samir Mohanty. On the contrary, the BJP was preparing a long list of issues against the BJD government.

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, the poster boy of the BJP in Odisha, has not missed an opportunity to take potshots at Patnaik over a host of issues in the state.

Neither is the BJD keen on an alliance with the BJP. In the absence of a towering figure in the state Opposition, the party knows that Patnaik is popular among the rural folk and doesn’t want to dilute that factor by tying up with the BJP.

In fact, BJD members leaning even slightly towards any of its rivals have been marginalised in the party.

BJD Member of Parliament Baijayant Panda is said to have lost favour with the party leadership, following his articles in the national media supporting some decisions of Modi. Another party MP and senior leader Bhartruhari Mahtab has been served a show cause notice for advocating an alliance of the BJD with the Congress.

For the time being at least, Patnaik’s pronounced principle — “We maintain equal distance from the Congress and the BJP” — holds.