Elections, water issue: BJD stares at tough days ahead

Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha may have come out of the cobweb of confrontations and controversies in 2015. However, the year 2017 promises to be full of challenges for it.

Of the major challenges the state government is going to face is panchayat elections in February. This apart, the Mahanadi water dispute with the Chhattisgarh government and the rift with Andhra Pradesh government as well as the Centre over the construction of Pollavaram multi-purpose dam on the Godavari River are expected to chase it like shadow. According to political experts, the popularity of the BJD government will be put to question if it gets less than its 2012 zilla parishad (ZP) seat tally.

In the 2012 elections, the BJD had won 651 of 851 zilla parishad seats. The Congress had finished the poor second with 128 seats while the BJP was the distant third with only 36 seats.

This time, the BJP led by Union petroleum and natural gas minister Dharmendra Pradhan is strategically attacking the BJD on all quarters.

Since the Congress is caught in the quagmire of factionalism in the state, it is expected that the saffron party will take advantage of it and improve its performance.

If political experts’ prediction of the BJP catapulting it to the second position in panchayat polls proves right, it will be warning bell for the BJD, which is dreaming the fifth term in succession by winning the 2019 Assembly polls.

On Mahanadi issue, it will be a victory for the Odisha government if the Centre puts brake on the ongoing projects on Upper Mahanadi by the Chhattisgarh government.

However, going by the developments of Polavaram project with the Centre declaring it as a national project and sanctioning '1,981 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government, the issue seems to have certainly gone out of hand of the government. The Congress has blamed the BJD for not seriously taking the Polavaram matter with the Centre and the party is every likely to make it a major poll issue.