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If it is Narendra Modi magic at the Centre, it is Naveen Patnaik magic in Odisha. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), under him, has again demonstrated its hegemony in the state. The party has swept both the Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections.
Going by the seats won and latest trend for both assembly and Lok Sabha polls, the party even has a chance to better its 2009 tally, when it won 103 of the 147 Assembly seats and 14 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.
What has helped the regional outfit in such a sterling performance was the relatively clean image of its leader and successful implementation of different welfare schemes over the past 14 years. The party and its government have virtually covered almost target groups — be it the Mamata scheme for pregnant women, free cycles to girl student, free laptop to meritorious +2 passouts, free health insurance for farmers and construction workers, cheap loans to self-help groups and provision of rice at Rs 1 per kg to BPL families.
“Despite scams like the multi-crore illegal mining scandal in the state, loot of depositors money by unscrupulous chit fund companies, corruption in supply of dal for the mid-day meal scheme in schools and siphoning of funds in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, Patnaik has managed to maintain a clean image by taking prompt action against several top politicians and bureaucrats,” points out Basant Das, a political analyst.
“This has helped Patnaik return to power for a record fourth time and beat all speculation of anti-incumbency and rise in BJP’s vote share due to Modi effect,” he added.
This election was particularly important for Patnaik as he was, for the first time, personally handling the entire process of election, starting from candidate selection to deciding on poll strategy, which was earlier being handled by his erstwhile confidant, Pyari Mohan Mohaptra.
After Mohapatra's ouster from the party in 2012 following a failed coup, doubts were raised about his Patnaik's ability to take up the whole responsibility of electioneering. But by deftly steering his party to a resounding success, Patnaik has demonstrated that only he not anyone else matters in the party.
