The buzz of an early assembly polls in Odisha seem to have started with senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Debi Prasad Mishra hinting at such a possibility.
“I have heard about it and people are definitely discussing it. So, the possibility of an early election cannot be ruled out. This is an election year, so every party including the BJD is getting prepared,” said Mishra. “A Union minister hinted at it. Even Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal mentioned it in the past. So it is a possibility, provided the Election Commission wants Odisha to go to elections with five other states scheduled next after Karnataka,” said Mishra
The tenure of the current assembly would end on June 24 next year. In December last year, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had claimed that Odisha might go for early polls. People familiar with the matter in the BJD said preponing the assembly polls would help the party prepare well for the Lok Sabha poll as the party wants to increase its seats from the current strength of 12.
Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress said they are ready in case early polls are declared. Odisha Congress leader Narasingha Mishra said, “Congress would do much better than last election as people are fed up with the corruption of the ruling BJD. They would teach the party a lesson,” said Mishra.
BJP leader Prithwiraj Harichandan said, “I don’t know what the BJD leadership has in mind. But we have started in full earnest. We are about to start an outreach programme soon to reach out over a crore families in the state,” said Harichandan.
{{/usCountry}}BJP leader Prithwiraj Harichandan said, “I don’t know what the BJD leadership has in mind. But we have started in full earnest. We are about to start an outreach programme soon to reach out over a crore families in the state,” said Harichandan.
{{/usCountry}}The buzz of early polls comes amid chief minister Naveen Patnaik doing performance review of all the departments from Monday. Patnaik has written to all the departments to apprise him about five biggest achievements and the fulfilment of the promises made in the BJD manifesto ahead of the 2019 polls. Political analyst Rabi Das said Patnaik may be eyeing more seats in Lok Sabha polls so that he can have a better bargaining position in next general election in case the BJP does not get full majority.
The only time Patnaik preponed assembly polls was in 2004 when he called for early polls to coincide it with the Lok Sabha polls that year. The BJD, which ran a coalition government with the BJP in Odisha, won the assembly election as it benefitted from the image of the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his ‘India shining’ campaign. Though the Congress on its own won the largest vote share, both the BJP and the BJD had a bigger combined vote share and a comfortable majority in the assembly polls.