Fifteen years after it broke a decade-long alliance with the BJP, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is set to return to the NDA fold and fight the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in alliance with the party that had emerged as its principal opponent in recent years.
Sources said the alliance talks were in an advanced stage and both sides have “more or less” reached a seat-sharing agreement for the polls. A formal announcement is expected soon, they said. There is a possibility of the announcement on Thursday, which will mark exactly 15 years from the day Chief Minister Patnaik severed ties with the BJP ahead of the 2009 polls.
This comes little over a month after the JDU led by Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in Bihar.
On Wednesday, both BJP and BJD held separate meetings to discuss the alliance. Patnaik held discussions with senior BJD leaders at his residence in Bhubaneswar in the evening while the BJP leadership held a meeting with party leaders from Odisha at the party headquarters in Delhi.
BJD leader V K Pandian, a former IAS officer considered to be Chief Minister Patnaik’s confidant, also held multiple rounds of discussions with the BJP central leaders.
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Jual Oram, who attended the meeting in New Delhi, said they have apprised the central leadership of the political scenario in all 147 Assembly seats and 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.
“Since the BJP is a national political party, the final decision lies with the central leadership. Whatever decision the central leadership takes, it will be binding for all. There were discussions about the alliance in the meeting,” Oram told reporters in Delhi.
A statement issued by BJD senior vice president Debi Prasad Mishra and senior general secretary Arun Kumar Sahoo after the meeting at Patnaik’s residence also signalled that the party was about to take some crucial decisions.
Stating that an extensive discussion was held by Patnaik with senior BJD leaders regarding the strategy of the upcoming elections, it said: “It was resolved that since by 2036, Odisha will complete 100 years of its statehood, and BJD and Honourable CM have major milestones to be achieved by this time, therefore Biju Janata Party will do everything towards this in the greater interests of people of Odisha…”
For the BJP, a formal alliance with one of the most significant regional parties would not only be a big morale boost, but also a big push to achieve its target of 370 seats in the Lok Sabha and 400-plus for the NDA. It will also help the BJP increase its tally in the Rajya Sabhawhere it does not have the majority on its own yet.
The BJD currently has nine MPs in the Rajya Sabha. With the BJP also keen to increase its vote share, the partnership will be a major impetus.
“As the BJP has already established its political and electoral dominance in the Hindi heartland states, the leadership wants to see the party grow in the eastern and southern states too. This would be one major leap in its journey towards it,” said a senior party leader.
While the BJD is keen on keeping its dominance and strength in the Odisha Assembly, the BJP wants to field as many candidates as possible. Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, the BJD had won 12 seats, the BJP eight and the Congress 1 in the 2019 elections.
Under the new seat-sharing deal, sources said, the BJP is likely to fight more seats in Lok Sabha while in the Assembly polls, the BJD would fight over 100 of the total 147 seats.
While the BJP has been keen on roping in Patnaik and his party back into the NDA fold, the efforts intensified after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah took over the reins of the BJP in 2014. Patnaik, who has built the image of a strong regional leader, had been resisting a formal alliance, although his party continued to support the BJP at the Centre since 2014.
Sources said both Patnaik and a section of leaders in the BJD still had reservations even as Pandian took the initiative in cementing the ties. “The drive is from Pandian’s side,” said a source in the BJD.
With the BJD and BJP set to come together, voters in Odisha would now have to choose between them and the Congress, which has seen its presence increasingly diminish in the elections. “The intention of both parties is to auction the soul of Odisha and to allow the non-Odias to loot Odisha…. We will emerge as the only alternative to BJD and BJP. The Congress will fight both parties,” said Biswaranjan Mohanty, chairman, OPCC media and communication department.
A section within the BJP cadre, party sources said, also has questions about the alliance and is unsure of how it will play out on the ground given that the party has been the primary opposition in the state and severely critical of the BJD on the ground. “To tell our rank and file to switch tracks so close to the elections is a challenge especially when we had been making steady progress over the past decade as the main opposition party in the state,” said a leader.
Speculation of the possible reunion of the two erstwhile allies gathered momentum after the BJD supported Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the recent Rajya Sabha elections as the BJP lacked the numbers to push his candidature.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi triggered a buzz during his visit to Odisha, when he lauded Patnaik as a “Lokpriya (popular)” Chief Minister and indicated that Odisha will have a significant role in achieving the NDA’s target of 400 seats in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. At the function, Patnaik lauded Modi for “setting a new direction for India” and for taking India on an accelerated drive to make the country an economic powerhouse.
The BJD and BJP were in alliance for around 11 years from 1998 to 2009. The two fought Assembly polls together for the first time in 2000. However, the BJD pulled the plug on the alliance just ahead of the 2009 polls as their ties soured after the August 2008 communal riots in Kandhamal district. Still, the BJD has not been as strident a critic of the Modi government at the Centre as other non-Congress Opposition parties with Patnaik usually calibrating his criticism depending on the issue.
