Behind good BJP show, two years of organisational work

ODISHA PANCHAYAT POLLS

In 2014, when the BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls, it had managed to win only one Parliamentary seat in Odisha and just 10 seats in the Assembly polls in the state.

Two-and-half-years later, the party, once dismissed as a “signboard party” by former CM Biju Patnaik,seemstohaveturnedthe tables on BJD that has been ruling Odisha for 17 years now. Of the 851 zilla parishad seats that went to the polls between February 13 and 21, BJP won nearly 306, almost 10 times its tally in 2012.

The party has won the majorityofzilaparishadseatsinthedistricts of Sambalpur, Bargarh, Bolangir and Deogarh, and tribaldominated districts of Malkangiri andmayurbhanj,onceconsidered BJD bastions.

Bjphassofarsecuredamajority in the zila parishad in eight of the 30 districts. It is expected to obtain a majority in three more, reportedly with some backdoor help from local Congressmen.

Thoughthefinalresultsareyet tobedeclared,bjpislearnttohave wrested 190-odd seats from BJD and nearly 60 from Congress.

Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who spearheadedbjp’scampaign,said,“the ground beneath BJD and Naveen Patnaikisshrinking.itisbeginning of the end of BJD rule in Odisha.”

The results seem to have left CM Naveen Patnaik concerned when he told party legislators on Wednesday that BJP’S rise was a warning signal.

Some senior BJD leaders like Suryo Patro alleged that BJP and Congress forged a tactical alliance to defeat BJD in several places.

Theallegationsnotwithstanding, few are aware of the scale of organisational work undertaken by the party in the state in the last two years. BJP added 30 lakh new members in the state through a missed-call programme and was abletoappointbooth-levelworkers in at least 35,000 of the 92000 boothsduringthepanchayatpolls.

In the past one year, the party organised at least 50,000 meetings across the state. “Our workers distributed leaflets at these meetings stressing how a poor man was forced to pay bribes to enjoy benefits of Indira Awas Yojana or old age allowance. While Congressleaderswerebusyfighting each other, we were busy projectingourselvesasanalternative to BJD,” said a party leader.

State Congress president Prasad Harichandan said his party could not fight the money power of BJD and BJP, but several party leaders concede that Congress is almost finished.

A series of incidents and intra-party differences in the past one year too signalled BJD’S slide. In Malkangiri, where Japanese Encephalitis killed over 100 kids between August and November last year, BJD faced one of its worst poll debacles. In Kalahandi, where the heart-rending image of one Dana Majhi carrying the body of his wife on foot embarrassed Naveen, BJD faced a total rout and BJP won 34 of the 36 Zila Parishad seats. In Mayurbhanj, where the BJD unit was riddled with factionalism, BJP won 49 of the 56 seats.