Over a gradual period of time, a perception regarding Odisha has been formed by the people of India who are not from this state mostly due to inherent reporting bias by the so-called “national media” which has simply reduced Odisha to the Jagannath temple, sand sculptures, the beaches of Puri, the debates around Rasgulla and the levels of malnutrition prevalent, to name a few. At the same time, the average young and educated Indian relates to people like Biswa Kalyan Rath, Biswa Pati Sarkar and Sona Mohapatra, etc. to the state. However, if we take a look at the contribution of Odisha to the overall production capacity of the country, it contributes to nearly 45% of the total aluminium production in India, 25% in terms of iron production and 10% production capacity in steel.
On the other hand, Odisha’s youth is present all over the production network; for example, unskilled or semiskilled workers working in states such as Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat or be it the Odia people representing India’s celebrated service sector like IT in Bangalore, Gurugram and Hyderabad. Odisha also has many institutes of national importance like IIT, IIM, AIIMS, NIT, NISER, etc. But out of all the above, the most underrated aspect is Odisha’s politics. In the upcoming parliament elections, the number of BJP seats in the Hindi heartland will inevitably drop due to factors such as unemployment, agrarian distress, a newly combined opposition or India’s counter-intuitive tendencies against incumbency. The implication of this is that BJP is on the lookout for new states in order to maintain the 272 magic number. This makes Odisha’s number important as it has 147 MLAs, 21 MPs (Lok Sabha) and 10 MPs (Rajya Sabha).
If we look back, in the year 1998, BJP lost the no-confidence motion in the parliament because of only one vote and that was Giridhar Gamang, former Member of Parliament and also a former Chief Minister of Odisha. The facts and figures stated above are only to drive home the point of how important Odisha’s politics is in the larger context of Indian Politics.
There is no doubt that the Biju Janata Dal led by Naveen Patnaik has been enjoying popularity among the voters of the state for the last two decades, it had almost a share of 45% votes until the last poll. A primary reason for this is implementing a well-crafted welfare scheme targeting the poor. For example, providing blankets and umbrellas to senior citizens, providing laptops to the youth, cycles to the job card holder, grains such as rice for all, etc. Most of the medicines for primary treatment is provided for free to all the section of the state.
The Biju Gram Jyoti Yojana ensured electricity for all and at low prices for BPL families in almost all the rural areas of Odisha. At the same time, instead of ‘vote bank politics’, the BJD government practised ‘vote of all politics’. The performance of the government was commendable in its disaster management attempts, be it evacuating people before the cyclones of 2013 and 2014 respectively or ensuring proper time table for offices and schools during the summer season to deal with the extreme heat.
Proper fire safety mechanisms were also put into place. Measures to tackle flood and drought have also been effective. There is the perception among the people about the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik not having any greed to save money as he is unmarried and does not have children. Thus, the logic here is that he is not corrupt and assures his clean image and this also guarantees Patnaik being the only power centre within BJD.
However, not all is good in BJD’s Odisha. A ‘Babu culture’ is increasing day by day, making government offices almost inaccessible for the common person. The BJD government has been highly criticised in the recent times in terms of the health services, which include inadequate infrastructure, large vacancy in government hospitals, poor provision for safety measures and sanitation and the incidents of Dana Majhi being a recent example of such mismanagement. A trend of hooliganism has been emerging in the last couple of years and several insensitive statements have been made by the ministers on serious issues of farmer suicides and rape. There is also much mismanagement in the education sector.
The Odisha government has passed a new order stating that if a government school has less than 20 students, the school will be shut down. This results in many children in the remote tribal areas being excluded from the formal education process. The problem related to irregular recruitment of teachers such as Para-teachers, Block-grant teachers and Guest Faculty in state government educational institutions. The education administration has made a total mess in primary schools by ensuring less number of teachers per school and imposing important schemes like MDM and sanitation forcefully on the school teachers. The government also faces an allegation against its ministers with regards to a chit fund scam. The most important lacuna of this government, which is well perceived by the people of Odisha is lacking jobs, which has induced migration of the youth to places like Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Surat, etc.
On the other hand, Congress, which had ruled Odisha before BJD has not been a very efficient opposition. The fight within the Congress for the post of president in the Pradesh Congress Committee has led to the formation of different groups and has serious implications on its image among the people of Odisha. Before the 2014 elections, Bhupinder Singh was the opposition leader in the house. But he left Congress and joined BJD, which was a major setback for the Congress party and its supporters.
Similarly, popular Congress MLA Naba Das also joined BJD recently. Also, previously during the Congress rule people of Odisha witnessed hooliganism, corruption and much more. Recently, there has been an attempt to revamp the Congress party leadership structure but it has yet to lead to any form of image rebuilding of the party. As a result, Congress is consistently declining in popularity and vote shares in the state. At the same time, BJP is constantly improving and has been able to gather its support among the youth through outstanding media management especially via social media in the state. Though BJP does not have any charismatic leader in the state, the party is trying its level best to exploit Narendra Modi’s image to the best possible manner it can.
The BJP’s increasing political base in western Odisha implies the decreasing popularity of the Congress as the primary opposition party in the state. The main reason for this rise is that BJP is able to harness anti-Katakia (coastal area) sentiments prevailing in the region. At the same time its ability to spend money at a large scale.
BJP had secured third place in both 2014 parliamentary and state assembly elections. But, in the recent local body elections, BJP has secured the second position by winning 8 of 30 council chairperson positions and 297 of the state’s 849 Zilla Parishad seats. Overall till now, it has not been able to touch the BJD’s vote share. As the 2019 elections (state and national) are around the corner, the BJP election machine has plunged into action. In order to bring enthusiasm among the party cadre and increase BJP’s base, Modi might contest elections from the Puri constituency.
At the same time, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan is chosen as the party chief ministerial candidate. Recently, BJP president Amit Shah has also visited Odisha several times to track the status of BJP’s popularity. The attack by Modi-Shah duo has also doubled as recently when Modi compared the BJD government to fuse transformer to which Patnaik replied that the 2019 election result will prove who actually is a fuse transformer. This chain of comments by the Modi-Shah duo is not really a new thing per se but the response from Naveen Patnaik is definitely first of its kind as the latter is not a person who generally responds to political comments. Off late, his activity in the public space has also increased. For instance, the recent inauguration of the world hockey championships by him in Odisha, clicking selfies with several Bollywood stars, getting out of the car to have a conversation with street vendors, etc.
The election is nearer so let’s wait and watch the biggest festival of India.