Disquiet grows in Odisha BJP over bonhomie with BJD as Cong steps up bid for ‘real Oppn’

Minutes after the BJP on February 14 announced Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw’s renomination to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha despite not having the number in the state Assembly, the ruling Naveen Patnaik-led BJD declared its support to his candidature “for the larger interest of the state’s railways and telecom development”.

This was a replay of 2019 when ex-IAS officer Vaishnaw was elected to the Upper House for the first time with the BJD’s support.

This time, the buzz about the two parties’ “tacit pact” was set off on February 12, when despite having the strength to win all the three Rajya Sabha seats, the BJD named only two candidates – ex-MLA Debashish Samantaray and youth face Subhashis Khuntia – for the polls.

Sources said Chief Minister and party supremo Patnaik was consulted by the BJP central leadership well before it announced Vaishnaw’s candidature, which led to the BJD’s move to field only two nominees.

As only three candidates were in the fray, all of them were declared elected to the Upper House “unopposed”.

As the bonhomie between the BJD and the BJP – which is the principal Opposition – continued to create ripples, both sides apparently mounted a “damage control” exercise too. While the BJD MLAs stayed away from Vaishnaw’s nomination-filing exercise, the latter also refrained from thanking Patnaik or his party for his election.

Cong campaign against BJD-BJP

The Congress has been pushing for a narrative over the “BJD-BJP nexus” in a bid to project itself as the “only real Opposition” in Odisha. As part of its revival plan in the run-up to the polls, the Congress has been positioning itself as an alternative to both the BJD and the BJP, organising their “mock marriages” across the state.

It is going to bring