Before battle of ballots, political parties in Odisha indulge in psychological warfare

BHUBANESWAR: In electoral battles, political parties concentrate on different methodologies like good poster and banner campaigns, public rallies and road-shows to get a good number of seats to form the government. However, a new addition is now getting into the repertoire of methodologies – showcasing the number of applicants for party tickets. The ruling BJD claims it has received over ten thousand applications for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats.

The Congress says it has got 300 applications for assembly tickets and 700 people have applied for Lok Sabha tickets.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main Opposition in the State Assembly, has kept itself away from this number showdown.

The number war began after the Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak on February 25 came out with the number of applicants his party received through a specially floated online platform – Pragaman. A couple of days later, BJD organising secretary Pranab Prakash Das claimed his party had received ten thousand applications. He went on to boast that the huge number of applications reflected the party’s growing popularity.

The BJP state president Manmohan Samal, though refrained from sharing the number of applications his party received from prospective candidates, claimed that the BJD would lose power in the coming assembly elections.

“Wait for a few more days. The BJP will surely form the government as the BJD has lost the trust and faith of the people because of large-scale corruption,” said BJP state president Samal.

Political analysts see the fight over number as a well-thought out political strategy to score over rivals.

“Each political party wants to score over each other. Before the battle of ballots, they indulge in this kind of number to achieve psychological edge. They also show off the number of leaders they draft into their respective party folds to send out an impression that their popularity is on the rise,” said Prasanna Mohanty, a political analyst.

Meanwhile, hectic political parleys have begun in Odisha ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections to be held simultaneously in the state. Though a formal notification regarding the poll dates is yet to be announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the major political parties have already stepped up their preparations in the state.

Even though a direct fight is on the cards between the ruling BJD and the main opposition BJP, all eyes are also on the Congress here to witness if the grand old party can put up a better show this time. With only 9 seats in the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly, the party has set a target to win at least 90 seats this time.