New phase of triangular tussle ahead of 2019 polls

Bhubaneswar: Odisha politics seems to have, of late, taken a new turn. The state politics which until a few days ago looked completely bipolar, revolving around the ruling BJD and BJP, is now witnessing the Congress entering into the arena and promising fierce triangular fights in the 2019 Assembly and general elections.

The appointment of septuagenarian Niranjan Patnaik as the new Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president in place of Prasad Harichandan seems to have energised the party. Known for his strong organisational skill, the astute Congress stalwart has vowed to regain the lost glory of the party by reaching out to all  party workers and leaders who are now sitting idle or have migrated to other parties.

In power since 2000, the regional BJD has always derived its political mileage mostly by fanning anti-Centre sentiments among the people. Allegation of “Central neglect” and “inadequate allocation” for implementation of Central and Center-sponsored welfare programmes by the party has also worked wonders for it.

However, after the NDA government  pumped huge funds into the state, more because of the efforts of Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan who is most likely to be the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in 2019, the BJP seems to be losing steam. For the last four years, the party was heavily relying on the issue of Odisha’s dispute with the neighbouring Chhattisgarh over the sharing of Mahanadi water to woo voters but the same issue has now been championed by the ruling BJD and the Congress.

The BJD alleges that although the Raman Singh government in Chhattisgarh built numerable barrages over the Mahanadi despite Odisha's protest, the NDA government at the Centre did little to prevent Chhattisgarh from such activities. Since 2014, the regional outfit has been organising conventions, seminars, workshops and protest rallies under the banner of “Mahanadi Bachao Andolan” across the state apparently to keep alive the issue so as to reap rich electoral benefits.

However, the announcement by the Congress on Wednesday to launch an identical “Mahanadi Bachao” (Save Mahanadi) movement in western Odisha has come out as a major shocker for the BJD. This, the BJD fears, will take the steam out of its “Mahanadi Bachao Andalan” and its support base on the issue will get divided, giving the much-needed relief to the BJP.

BJD spokesperson Samir Ranjan Dash, however, dismissed that the emergence of the Congress and raising of the Mahanadi issue by the latter will have any impact on his party.

“People know who is originally championing the cause of Mahanadi. The Congress just cannot hijack this issue from us to dilute the whole campaign and take political mileage out of it,” said Mr Dash.

Moving slowly and yet consistently towards a position of strength and aiming to wrest power from the BJD in the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP plans to stick to its agenda of “positive politics.”

“The Narendra Modi government has always focused on development of states in the east. Odisha has always been on the top of the list of the Centre and people of this state have realised who is really working and who is just shedding crocodile tears,” said BJP vice-president Samir Mohanty.

New Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik admits that he has a “very short time” in hand to revamp the organisation. He, however, exudes confidence that his party would win the hearts of the people by highlighting the “betrayal” of the people by the BJP and the BJD.

“The BJD and BJP shared power in the state till 2009. Now, both the parties are engaged in shadow-boxing. People know it that they have very good bonhomie. Voters will shun them this time for their betrayal,” said Mr Patnaik.

In the 147-member Assembly, the BJD has 117 MLAs, the Congress has 16 MLAs and the BJP has 10.