Is Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik ‘History’ Now? BJD Chief’s Downfall in Assembly Elections Explained in 5 Points

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s BJP is currently trailing in the Kantabanji constituency as the counting of votes for the Assembly polls is underway, according to the latest trends from the Election Commission. Naveen Patnaik is trailing by 7,984 votes against his BJP rival Laxman Bag, leading the polls by 9,142 ballots. The BJP has crossed the majority mark in Odisha Assembly polls and is currently leading in 76 seats. Now the question arises why is CM Naveen Patnaik, who ruled the coastal state of India for 27 long years, facing such a debacle? Some of these reasons can be attributed to his failure this time.

Modi Ki Guarantee

‘PM Modi Ki Guarantee’ played a significant role for the BJP to cross majority mark in Odisha this time during Assembly elections. During his high voltage campaigning, PM Modi assured the people that the next five years would be filled with unprecedented achievements.

PM Modi also guaranteed that India will become the third largest economic power in the world.

He also suggested that in the next five years, Indian will witness an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ in many sectors. Some of the other guarantees that worked for Odisha include transformation of highways, expressway, and railways.

Anti-Incumbency Factor

Anti-incumbency factor played a major role in deciding the political fate of Naveen Patnaik in Odisha. People of the state wanted a change in the state this time as Naveen Patnaik was ruling the state for the past 27 years without much development in interior districts of the state.

Propaganda Around Naveen’s Health Issue

Naveen Patnaik’s health came under scanner after videos of his shivering hands went viral on social media. Taking note of this fact, PM Modi recently said that the well-wishers of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader were worried over his health, and they believed that there might be a conspiracy behind it, invoking immediate rebuttal from Patnaik.

Expressing concerns over the conspiracy behind the health issues, PM Modi said the people of Odisha are distressed to see how Naveen Babu’s health suddenly deteriorated in the last year. He said people who have been close to Naveen Babu for years now discuss this with him when they meet. They told him that Naveen Babu is now unable to make any decisions on his own and now they believe that there might be some conspiracy behind his deteriorating health.

Pandian Babu Vs Odia Asmita

During the election season, Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal faced public revolt for the first time and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan alleged that an outsider in the chief minister’s office wants to capture the state.

In an interview with PTI recently, Dharmendra Pradhan said the Odia identity is under threat and this election is all about that identity called as Odia Asmita. “BJD is being run by a group of bureaucrats…the caucus in the chief minister’s office which has few non-Oriya officers, they all came together and thought let’s exploit the inability of the chief minister, let’s create a vacuum from back door and their intention is to capture the state,” he stated.

Aggressive Campaign by BJP

During the ongoing elections, the BJP made an aggressive poll strategy for campaigning and that helped the party to score well in the Assembly Polls. As part of the campaign, BJP lined up its star campaigners for nearly a month in the state. While the BJD’s campaign relied heavily on party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, along with bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian, the BJP’s poll drive was spearheaded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. PM Modi, along with Union Ministers like Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, actively campaigned across various parts of the state for BJP candidates. PM Modi also recently held rallies in Berhampur and Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seats on May 13.