Odisha BJP hit by booth-level exodus

New Delhi: These are troubling times for the BJP in Odisha. There is, apparently, a major exodus of booth-level workers to the ruling BJD and the Congress.

Almost 70 per cent of local leaders who had joined the BJP at the booth level have gone back to either the BJD or the Congress, sources said.

Sources said that while chief minister Naveen Patnaik-led BJD has become aggressive ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, the BJP has been hit by infighting as a section of the state unit is opposed to projecting Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the chief ministerial candidate.

Reports reaching the BJP headquarters also indicate that the BJP is “rapidly losing its support base” that it had managed to build in the last two years.

Sources said that the BJD has surged ahead in propaganda on the social media that once used to be the BJP’s strong point.

There are also reports that the saffron cadre is miffed with “arrogant” state leaders.

“Naveen babu can afford to be arrogant but not our (BJP) leaders. Our state leadership has started behaving as if we have won the state polls. Our party president (Amit Shah) has been working so hard, which really helped the party last year (in local bodies’ polls), but now it seems everything is back to square one,” said a senior state leader.  

The BJP’s setback is also being attributed to Mr Patnaik’s strategies that have consolidated the BJD’s vote bank and wooed back party workers who had quit it in the last couple of years.

Odisha is one of the few states where the “NaMo wave” had no impact in 2014. The BJD secured 20 of the 21 parliamentary constituencies and bagged 117 of the 147 seats in the simultaneous Assembly polls.

Though the BJP had gained momentum and did exceptionally well during the local bodies polls held last year — it saffron party gave a major challenge to the ruling BJD and nearly annihilated the main Opposition Congress, sources said, the party’s state leadership could not leverage the momentum.

Losing the Bijepur Assembly bypoll to the BJD in February also impacted the BJP’s support, they said.

Many in the state’s political circles feel that Mr Patnaik, whose party has been ruling the state since 2000, has implemented welfare schemes inspired from the ones Modi government has launched and applied some of the BJP’s strategies that have worked in his favour.

Till early last year, BJD leaders, including the chief minister, were being criticised for being “non-accessible” and “losing touch” with party workers. After the BJP’s stunning performance in the local bodies’ polls, Mr Patnaik reshuffled the organisation and made key changes in the government. He also made “jan sampark” for party leaders mandatory. All this seems to have worked in the BJD’s favour.