 "15 years after severing ties, Naveen Patnaik's BJD set to return to NDA")
Fifteen years after breaking a decade-long alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), led by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, is set to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and fight the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in alliance with the party that has emerged as its main opponent in recent years.
Sources told The Indian Express that the alliance talks are nearing completion, and both parties have "more or less" established a seat-sharing arrangement for the elections. An official announcement is expected soon, they said. It is possible that the announcement would be made on Thursday, exactly 15 years after Chief Minister Patnaik severed ties with the BJP ahead of the 2009 elections.
This comes just over a month after the Janata Dal (United) [JDU], led by Nitish Kumar, returned to the NDA in Bihar.
On Wednesday, both the BJP and BJD held separate meetings to discuss the alliance. Patnaik met with senior BJD leaders at his Bhubaneswar residence in the evening, while the BJP leadership met with Odisha party leaders at its Delhi headquarters.
BJD leader V K Pandian, a former IAS officer and close confidant of Chief Minister Patnaik, 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, stated that they had informed the central leadership on the political situation in all 147 Assembly seats and 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.
"Since the BJP is a national political party, the central leadership makes the final decision. Whatever decision the central leadership makes, it will be binding on everyone. There were discussions about the alliance at the meeting," Oram told reporters in Delhi.
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Following the discussion at Patnaik's residence, BJD senior vice president Debi Prasad Mishra and senior general secretary Arun Kumar Sahoo issued a statement, indicating that the party was set to take some crucial decisions.
Stating that an extensive discussion was held by Patnaik with senior BJD leaders regarding the strategy of the upcoming polls, 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 BJD will do everything towards this in the greater interests of people of Odisha."
For the BJP, a formal alliance with one of the most powerful regional parties will not only improve morale but also provide a huge boost to the BJP's goal of 370 Lok Sabha seats and 400-plus for the NDA. It will also help the BJP raise its tally in the Rajya Sabha, where it does not currently have a majority.
The BJD currently has nine Rajya Sabha members. With the BJP also eager to increase its vote share, the partnership will provide a significant push.
"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," a senior party leader told The Indian Express.
While the BJD is determined to maintain 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.
The report further stated that under the new seat-sharing agreement, the BJP is set to contest more Lok Sabha seats, while the BJD will contest more than 100 of the total 147 Assembly seats.
While the BJP has long sought to reintegrate Patnaik and his party into the NDA, attempts have increased since Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah took over the party in 2014. Patnaik, who has established himself as a powerful regional leader, had been opposing a formal alliance despite his party's continuing support for the BJP at the Centre since 2014.
According to sources, Patnaik and a group of BJD officials still had reservations despite Pandian's efforts to strengthen connections. "The drive is from Pandian's side," a BJD source stated.
With the BJD and BJP ready to form a coalition, Odisha voters would now have to pick between them and the Congress, whose presence in elections has been dwindling. "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.
Party sources said that a section of the BJP cadre is also sceptical of the alliance and wary of how it would play out on the ground, considering that the party has been the primary opposition in the state and has been severely critical of the BJD. "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," a leader of the party said.
Speculation of the two former partners reuniting grew after the BJD supported Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the recent Rajya Sabha elections, as the BJP lacked the numbers to support his candidacy.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Modi triggered a buzz during his visit to Odisha, when he praised Patnaik as a "Lokpriya" (popular) chief minister and stated that Odisha will have a significant role in achieving the NDA's target of 400 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. At the event, Patnaik praised Modi for "setting a new direction for India" and for hastening the country's transition to an economic powerhouse.
The BJD and BJP were in alliance for around 11 years from 1998 to 2009. The two initially fought Assembly polls together in 2000. However, the BJD ended the alliance just before the 2009 elections, claiming strained relations after the August 2008 communal riots in Kandhamal district. Nonetheless, 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.