Odisha: 'Time For Naveen Patnaik to Leave Active Politics, Pass on Baton'

The loss in the recently held Nuapada Assembly bypoll in Odisha has once again proved that Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been shown the mirror by the electorate.

The BJD suffered the loss despite Patnaik’s two campaign visits to the constituency, triggering hopes for a probably parting grace through an electoral victory by the party. Instead, the electoral defeat has proved to be the waterloo for Patnaik under whose leadership the BJD had also decisively lost the Assembly polls in 2024.

Significantly, BJD was pushed to the third position in Nuapada, an ignominy it suffered after over two decades.  

This was a crushing defeat for BJD as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Jay Dholkia, registered a significant boost for his party by winning by 83,748 votes, pushing BJD’s Sehangini Chhuria to a dismal third position, while the Congress candidate, Ghashiram Majhi, remained in second position.

BJD candidate Chhuria secured 38,408 votes (18.06%) against the party’s 33.65% votes in the 2024 Assembly elections.

Key Political Shift    

The Nuapada defeat is an irreparable dent in the popularity of Patnaik and signals a distinct turnaround in Odisha politics.

“For the ailing 79-year-old Patnaik, whose political stock is on the wane after the 2024 general elections, the defeat in the recent bypoll has come as a foreboding”, said Kameswar Rao, a journalist and poll analyst.

What cannot be lost sight of is Patnaik’s continued dependence on officer-turned-politician V K Pandian, who proved to be a Frankenstein’s Monster for BJD in the 2024 polls, he added. 

The Nuapada bypoll registered a massive turnout of 83.45%, the highest among the eight bye-elections held nationwide. 

It is a different matter that poll analysts attribute the massive turnout to alleged poll manipulation by the Election Commission and its “hand-in-glove” role, else 83.45% polling in Odisha is unheard of.

“We suspect massive manipulation by the Election Commission in the polling,” said Debi Prasad Mishra, BJD vice-president.     

“That apart, Patnaik’s obsession with certain tainted BJD leaders, those who have proved themselves to be liabilities for the party’s image, were again deployed to spearhead the bypoll campaign in Nuapada”, said Ritik Pramanik, political observer.   

Unwise Pick for War Room

Let’s look back where the BJD supremo was yet again misled by his backyard adviser, Pandian who, perhaps, forced him to choose some faces, such as like Pranab Prakash Das, Arun Sahoo and Pratap Jena, who have themselves failed to create any perception politically and personally.

“There is no secret that all the above BJD leaders are Pandian loyalists. And I would say that, may be, like Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Patnaik’s faculty of reason perhaps has stopped working due to illness, may be,” he added.

Analysts also wonder what was the compulsion behind picking the above leaders, those who have not recovered from the defeatist impulses they suffered in the 2024 elections.

“If Patnaik is willing to see the BJD cruise through the BJP blitzkrieg, then he must take a decision over appointing someone to lead the party and he can remain in an advisory role”, said Rabi Das, a political analyst, adding that “although it is a very tough task to find someone who can be a rallying point (in BJD) after Patnaik”.

“The irony is that Patnaik has not readied any second line leadership in the BJD and has instead, sadly, created a political limbo by empowering Pandian to remain his political forerunner, which neither the people (of Odisha) would accept nor would BJD leader,” added Das.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha, with over 40 years’ experience in the profession.