BJP-BJD Alliance For Electoral Benefits in Odisha: Bijay Patnaik

BHUBANESWAR: The 10-minute closed-door meeting on Saturday between Union home minister Amit Shah and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has not gone down well with the Congress as the party saw it an “undeclared alliance” between the two political rivals before the 2024 Lok Sabha and state elections.  

On Sunday, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) campaign committee chairperson Bijay Patnaik dubbed the Shah-Naveen meeting as an “undeclared alliance” for “mutual electoral benefit.”

In his Twitter handle, Mr Patnaik wrote, “The meeting between Sri Naveen Patnaik and Sri Amit Shah is beyond speculation. It is clearer by the day that BJP and BJD are heading into an undeclared alliance for mutual electoral benefit. You can fool some people for some time, not all people for all time.”

On Saturday, the Union home minister Mr Shah and the Odisha CM Mr Patnaik had a closed-door meeting for about 10 minutes here at the Lok Seva Bhawan (state secretariat) after a few official engagements.

Political analysts saw it as growing bonhomie between the BJP and BJD ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state.

Although both the parties are arch rivals in the state and bay for each other’s blood during elections, they silence their guns post the Lok Sabha and assembly polls and project themselves as friends.

Ever since 2017 when the BJD first extended support to the NDA’s Goods and Services (GST) Bill, 2017 in the Parliament, the relationship between the BJP and BJD has grown stronger. The regional party, though not an official member of the NDA, has supported the latter on more than a dozen occasions in the past – both in the Parliament and outside.

Barring once when it supported the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA)  Vice President candidate Gopal Grishna Gandhi, the BJD has supported all the nominees of the NDA for constitutional positions like President of India, Vice President, Lok Sabha Speaker and Deputy Chairperson nominees.

The BJD’s recent support to the NDA’s National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 and resistance to the Opposition-moved non-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government have once proved that both the parties are all-weather friends.

On Saturday, both Naveen and Shah had heaped praises on each other while jointly laying the foundation stone for some national highway projects here in Bhubaneswar.