Odisha Elections 2024: After Weeks of Will-They-Won’t-They, Here’s Why BJP and BJD Announced They Won’t

After weeks of will-they-won’t-they, it’s been decided that they won’t. Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have announced they will not be entering into an alliance for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha.

Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal confirmed on social media on Friday that the saffron party will contest the elections in Odisha.

“Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will fight alone this time in all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats to create a developed India and a developed Odisha under the visionary leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to fulfill the hopes, aspirations and aspirations of four and a half crore Odiyans,” Samal posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Few hours later, BJD leader Pranab Prakash Das posted on the microblogging site that the party too would contest the elections alone.

“BJD will contest in all 147 assembly constituencies and all 21 Lok Sabha constituencies with the support of people of Odisha and win more than three fourth seats under the leadership of Shri Naveen Patnaik,” he said.

The decision to go solo in Odisha is not one the BJP took overnight. At least four rounds of meetings among top brass, including party national president JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, went into arriving at the decision, sources told News18, adding that the state BJP unit was also opposed to the alliance.

Top BJP sources said the decision to not enter into an alliance with the BJD was taken based on detailed feedback from the state unit. “The state BJP has been trying to build a campaign for itself for the last many years and this alliance would actually mean all its efforts going into vain,” a source said.

“The state unit says it has prepared itself well and will be able to win 45-60 Assembly seats on its own,” the source added.

The BJP currently has eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats allotted to Odisha and is confident of winning more than 12 seats on its own given the mass appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the development work done by the central government since 2014.

Apart from disagreements on the seat-sharing formula, the BJP and BJD were also at loggerheads over some sought-after seats. The BJD reportedly did not want to part with crucial seats like Bhubaneswar, which is the state capital, and Puri, home of the famous Jagannath Temple.

“The BJP has not been very keen on giving away seats like Bhubaneswar and Puri. In 2019, it was a close contest between Dr Sambit Patra and Pinaki Misra in Puri. However, much water has flown under the bridge in the last five years, with Pinaki being out of the poll fray from the holy city. Sambit Patra, however, has relentlessly campaigned in Puri and practically made it his home and base. The BJP is very confident that he (Patra) will be able to win the seat this time,” another BJP source told News18.

“The current Bhubaneswar MP is from the BJP – former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi. Given the BJP’s impact in the urban areas, it is very confident that Sarangi will be able to repeat her performance in the upcoming Lok Sabha election,” the insider added.

Since Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre in 2014, the BJD has been one of the friendlier opposition parties, supporting the BJP and the central government on key bills and issues in Parliament. In fact, it was with the support of the BJD that Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was elected last month to the Rajya Sabha from the eastern state.

One of the BJP’s star candidates in Odisha for the upcoming parliamentary polls is Union Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan, who will be making his electoral debut in the state. Pradhan had won the 2004 Lok Sabha elections from Bihar. For the last two terms, he has been a member of the Rajya Sabha. He is expected to contest the upcoming elections from the western Odisha seat of Sambalpur.

There is no clarity from the BJP so far on whether Baijant Jay Panda, who jumped ship from the BJD, would be fielded from his traditional seat of Kendrapada. Actor-turned-politician Anubhaw Mohanty is the sitting Kendrapada MP and had defeated Panda in 2019. At present, Panda is the BJP in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.

For the last decade, Naveen Patnaik has led Odisha and his party while maintaining perfect relations with the BJP and Prime Minister Modi. The upcoming election is a special one for him. Patnaik is seeking his sixth term as the Chief Minister, a feat in itself.

The NDA is not new turf for Patnaik as he was part of the alliance in the days of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. For both the BJD and the BJP the points of consideration are possible demerits of an alliance. But in politics, it’s not done until its done. The final call to join hands or pull out will be taken at the highest levels of the parties, between Narendra Modi and Naveen Patnaik.