Nearly three weeks after Biju Janata Dal drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls and lost power to the BJP in the state assembly polls, party president and former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged his nine Rajya Sabha MPs to be an effective opposition in the Parliament -- a move that could pose some difficulty for the NDA which has previously depended on unaligned parties such as the BJD and the YSRCP to push through bills in the upper house.
Chairing the meeting of the BJD parliamentary party in Naveen Niwas on Monday morning, Patnaik asked the Rajya Sabha MPs to be the strong voice of the state in the Parliament and raise various important issues pertaining to the development of Odisha.
After the meeting, BJD MP Sasmit Patra said that the party will emerge as a strong opposition voice in the upper house.
“ The people of Odisha will witness how BJD will raise its voice on each of the issues. BJD MPs will not be confined to speaking on issues only, but are determined to agitate if the BJP-led government at the Centre ignores Odisha’s interest. Besides raising the demand for special status for Odisha, the BJD MPs will raise the issues of poor mobile connectivity and low density of bank branches in the state. Odisha’s demand for revision of coal royalty has been ignored by the Centre for the last 10 years. This is causing great loss to the people of the state who are deprived of their rightful share,” said Patra.
When asked whether BJD would maintain its earlier stance of giving issue-based support to the Modi government, Patra said the party would no longer give support to BJP. “There is no question of supporting the BJP. The BJD president asked us to act as a strong and vibrant opposition if the NDA government continues to ignore the genuine demands of Odisha. We may go to any extent to protect the interests of Odisha.”
{{/usCountry}}When asked whether BJD would maintain its earlier stance of giving issue-based support to the Modi government, Patra said the party would no longer give support to BJP. “There is no question of supporting the BJP. The BJD president asked us to act as a strong and vibrant opposition if the NDA government continues to ignore the genuine demands of Odisha. We may go to any extent to protect the interests of Odisha.”
{{/usCountry}}The BJP-led NDA has 113 MPs in the 245-member Rajya Sabha. There are 14 vacancies now.
In the just-concluded Lok Sabha election, the BJD drew a blank while BJP won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The Congress won the Koraput Lok Sabha constituency. Of the 10 Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha, BJD has 9 MPs while the BJP has 1. BJP leader and union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was elected twice from Odisha with BJD’s backing.
BJD has been a strong supporter of the NDA since 2019 Lok Sabha polls, bailing out the Modi government on key legislations such as Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019 (Reorganisation Bill) that ended the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir dividing the region into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The same year, the party supported the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill that makes instant triple talaq a criminal offence and the Citizenship Amendment Act. In the 2019 monsoon session of the parliament, it supported bills proposing changes to the UAPA and the RTI Acts . The BJD also voted against the no-confidence motion brought in by an united opposition last year.