Odisha: BJP leaders meet in Delhi to dispel confusion, chart out poll strategy

Bhubaneswar: Prominent leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Odisha along with party’s state in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar and co-in-charge Lata Usendi held a meeting in New Delhi and assessed the party’s poll preparedness.

BJP national president JP Nadda and vice president Baijayant Jay Panda were present in the meeting.

BJP Odisha in-charge, Vijaypal Singh Tomar and co-in-charge Lata Usendi recently had several rounds of discussion with party leaders in Bhubaneswar. Tomar has claimed that the party would win at least 80 of the 147 assembly seats and form the next government in Odisha by dislodging the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which has been in power for over 24 years now.

The saffron party also hopes to win 16 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The BJP’s confidence to do well in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections stems from the growing popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the youths in the state. According to various rating agencies, PM Modi is the most popular leader in the state followed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The Delhi meeting, according to sources in the party, was convened to decide what strategies the party would perform better in the twin polls.

Odisha will go to Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously.

While the state BJP leaders have been targeting the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD government on corruption issues, the party's central leadership is mysteriously soft on the latter, thus creating confusion among the party’s grassroots workers. What added to the confusion more is both the BJP-BJD re-electing Union railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav to Rajya Sabha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, who visited Odisha earlier this month, did not utter a single word against Naveen Patnaik, either on the issue of corruption or governance failure as alleged by the state leaders. Their posturing this time was in stark contrast to their appearances in the state on the eve of 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The two top leaders had then launched no-holds-barred tirades against the ruling BJD and promised crusades against corruption.

However, the BJP central leaders apparently silenced their guns after 2019 polls as the BJD continued to extend support to the NDA government both inside and outside the Parliament on crucial issues.