It’s poll season once again and all eyes are on Odisha amid buzz in political circles about a possible alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal, which has been holding fort in the state for almost two decades now. Assembly elections in Odisha and the general elections are held simultaneously. And, according to Network18’s Mega Opinion Poll, the state is set to add 13 Lok Sabha seats to the BJP’s kitty, giving the remaining eight to the BJD, while the INDIA bloc may draw a blank.
The saffron party could rake in a 43% vote share, closely followed by the BJD at 40%, with INDIA getting 15%, and Others 2%, indicates the opinion poll.
News18’s survey from February 12 to March 1 covered 21 major states of India that account for 95% all Lok Sabha constituencies, making it one of the largest surveys in the country. It provides valuable insights into the political landscape of India, offering a detailed analysis of voter sentiment and preferences ahead of the upcoming general elections.
BJP state leaders have held a series of meetings at the residence of union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, sources said. A section of state BJP leaders was against stitching an alliance with the BJD, which dumped the saffron party ahead of the 2009 general elections, months after a riot in Kandhamal the previous year, they said.
The issue of an alliance between the BJD and BJP came up for discussion after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha on March 5. The next day, the BJD held a meeting of its senior leaders. Pradhan, the sources said, has been assigned to talk with the Odisha BJP leaders on the issue of the possible tie-up with the BJD.
Looking back at 2019
Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly constituencies.
In 2019, the BJD won 12 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP got eight and the Congress secured one. In the assembly elections the same year, the BJD bagged 112 seats, while the BJP won 23, and the Congress got nine.
Past ties
The bonhomie between Patnaik and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is an open secret. While PM Modi has hailed Patnaik as a “Lokpriya (popular)" chief minister, the latter has said that the prime minister had set the course for India to become “an economic powerhouse".
Despite not being part of the ruling coalition, the Biju Janata Dal has voted with the government on contentious issues such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Goods, and Services Tax (GST), demonetisation, and the proposal for ‘one nation, one election’, as well as the polls for the President’s post, both in 2017 and 2022.
The two parties were allies from 1998 until 2009. Prior to becoming the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik was a union minister in late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cabinet in the 1990s.
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