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Why Nitish Kumar’s NDA exit in Bihar is raising hopes in Naveen Patnaik’s BJD
Leaders of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) expect the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to tone down its shrill pitch in the state after the party’s setback in Bihar where the
Leaders of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) expect the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to tone down its shrill pitch in the state after the party’s setback in Bihar where the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) dumped the BJP and is set to team up with rivals including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
A BJD leader said Nitish Kumar’s exit from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) couldn’t have come at a better time for the BJD, a view driven by the assessment that the BJP wouldn’t want to upset the BJD after losing Nitish Kumar’s support.
“For PM Modi, there is just one non-BJP chief minister in the east who has largely supported the Modi-Shah regime on matters starting from demonetisation, GST, Citizenship Amendment Act... The chief minister has stayed away from any grand alliance of opposition parties over the last two years… he would need Patnaik more to be on his side,” said the BJD MP.
The fast-changing developments in Bihar come a day after Union home minister Amit Shah told BJP leaders in Odisha that the party will evict the ruling Naveen Patnaik government in the 2024 assembly elections.
Shah told a function to release the Odia edition of the book Modi@20 in Bhubaneswar that the BJP, once described as a Hindi heartland party, had expanded in new territories including the northeast. “Soon Odisha too will have a BJP govt,” he said
At a meeting with senior party leaders, Shah told them to keep on strengthening the party at the booth level and not be daunted by the BJD’s dominance over the state’s political landscape. Shah noted that the BJP didn’t win many seats in the panchayat and civic polls this year but underlined that the BJP’s vote percentage largely remained intact at 30 per cent. “Shah said we have to take BJD head-on in whichever forum available to us in the next 2 years,” said a senior BJP leader about the closed-door meeting.
A second BJD leader said there was little chance of the BJP turning combative against the BJD because of the relationship between Naveen Patnaik and PM Modi.
“After developments in Bihar, BJP can’t be aggressive against BJD beyond a point. We were always organisationally stronger than BJP and after the political developments in Bihar, now BJP cadres in the state would be demoralised once the central leadership goes soft on us,” the second leader said.
A senior BJP leader who was part of Shah’s strategy meetings with party brass suggested the BJD shouldn’t raise its hopes too high, “If Naveen Patnaik thinks that he can bargain his way with the BJP brass, he is mistaken. We will start agitational programmes against the government and put the government on the mat over corruption,” said Odisha BJP president Sameer Mohanty.
Mohanty added that the party will also try to capitalise on President Droupadi Murmu’s elevation to tap the state’s 23% tribal votes. “For a tribal, Murmu becoming commander-in-chief is a huge thing emotionally and we would use it,” he added.
BJP leaders said by appointing senior MLA Jay Narayan Mishra, who is known for his stance against Naveen Patnaik, as leader of the opposition in the assembly, the party has sent out a message that it will no longer think twice before adopting an aggressive stance against the Naveen Patnaik government.
