BHUBANESHWAR: Perhaps never ever in his political career, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had campaigned as vigorously as he did in Odisha, which is historically known as Kalinga. He held eight public rallies and two grand roadshows, to turn the tide in favour of his party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Modi knew well that the battle against Naveen Patnaik, a person who has been chief minister of Odisha for over 24 years now, was not that easy. His most trusted man erstwhile BJP president Amit Shah had in 2019 set an ambitious target two win 120 of the 147 assembly seats in the state. But he had failed very miserably as the party desperately lacked an organisational structure as charismatic leader. The BJP then could win only 23 of the 147 assembly seats and eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.
Modi, as he explained in his interviews, that he knew Odisha well during his days as a Pracharak. He could sense that people in the state were increasingly feeling unhappy and marginalised as Naveen had “surrendered” his civil and police administrations to the whims and fancies of some non-Odia bureaucrats led by V Karthikeyan Pandian, a Tamil Nadu-born IAS officer who later resigned from his service and joined the BJD.
Modi pitched the slogan of “Odia Asmita” or Odia pride and said it was in danger. He explained to the people the Pandian had trampled upon the Odia culture and heritage and called upon the voters to vote for BJP to stop such activities.
He also outlined a lot of other issues like missing of the keys of Lord Jagannath’s Ratna Bhandar, unemployment and distress migration to reach out to the voters.
Modi deployed a large contingent of central leaders like Union minister Amit Shah, party president JP Nadda, Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and two of his key strategists — Vijaypal Singh Tomar and Bhupendra Yajdav — who worked one-month mission to reach out the voters. Supported by thousands of volunteers mobilized from across the country, the BJP leaders held hundreds of public meetings and successfully connected with the people.
An alluring manifesto, — which among others promised to take actions against corrupt persons involved in chit fund and mining scams, Rs 50,000 cash voucher to women under Subhadra Yojana, Suryaghar Yojana, opening of Ratna Bhandar, — touched the people and they turned out in huge number to caste their votes in favour of the BJP.
Latest report said the BJP had won 19 of the Lok Sabha seats and 79 of 147 assembly seats. The party is all set to form the new government.
Modi has earlier announced that the name of the new CM will be announced on June 6 and the oath-taking ceremony will take place on June 10.
