BJD Backs BJP’s RS Nominee: Can Cong Rise as Opposition in Odisha?

BJD announced that the party would support the BJP candidate Ashwini Vaishnav for the Odisha Rajya Sabha seat

Rahul went all out against Naveen Patnaik at the public meeting in Bhubaneswar.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/ The Quint)

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday, 21 June, announced the names of two party candidates – party’s IT cell chairman and spokesperson Amar Patnaik and spokesperson Sasmit Patra – for the upcoming bypolls for three Rajya Sabha seat.

However, Odisha chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik sprang a surprise by announcing that the state’s ruling party would support the Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate, Ashwini Vaishnav, for the third Rajya Sabha seat.

With just 23 MLAs, the BJP could not have made its nominee win the elections – without the BJD’s support.

Polling for the three seats, vacated by BJD’s Pratap Deb, Achyuta Samant and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, will be held on 5 July.

“The prime minister (Narendra Modi) and home minister (Amit Shah) spoke to me. We will support the candidature of Ashwini Vaishnav,” Patnaik told news persons.

Vaishnav is a former IAS officer of the Odisha cadre who served as collector of Cuttack and Balasore districts. He later went on central deputation and became a private secretary to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he was the prime minister.

Vaishnav worked with Vajpayee even after the latter bowed out of power in 2004.

New Equation Between BJP & BJD

When the BJD and BJP were coalition partners, from 2000 to 2009, Vaishnav, an IIT alumnus, reportedly coordinated between them.

So, the BJD’s support for Vaishnav at this juncture points towards a new equation between the BJD and BJP.

It shows that after a bitter electoral fight, both the BJD and BJP have come closer over various common interests and compulsions.

The BJP needs more MPs in the Rajya Sabha, where it still does not have a majority, while the BJD may push for more central funds as well as the demand for special category status for Odisha.

As a goodwill gesture, the BJP may be inclined to gift two assembly seats to the BJD – Bijepur and Patkura – for which bypolls will be held soon.

Besides, by gifting the BJP a Rajya Sabha seat, the BJD seems to have rendered the national party’s state leadership helpless.

Such bonhomie between the BJD and BJP post elections have put former BJD leaders like Baijayant Panda and Damodar Rout, who had joined the BJP before the elections, in a tight spot.

Rise of Congress in Odisha?

Veteran leader Bijoy Mohapatra, who resigned from the BJP and then rejoined it before elections, too seems to be lost as there is no certainty that he will get support from his own party when the bypoll for Patkura is held.

Such a scenario leaves Odisha virtually without an opposition. The BJD now has 112 Assembly seats while the BJP and Congress have 23 and nine respectively.

But with the BJD and BJP getting closer, the Congress still has a chance to act like a true opposition despite its single-digit strength and regain its lost ground. But will the Congress, which lost its second position to the BJP, wake up from its slumber?

(This was first published on The Samikshya and has been republished with permission.)