Hoping to regain Odisha ground, Cong ups its game: Raking up ‘BJD-BJP nexus’ to inducting ex-leaders

Two months before the Congress’s Telangana unit was preparing for a fierce electoral battle with the incumbent BRS government last year, it had shared a wedding card that mentioned “BRS loves BJP”. The move was part of the Congress’s game plan to expose the “secret ties” between the BRS and the BJP — a narrative that helped the party break the KCR-led government’s decade-long hold in the southern state.

Taking a leaf out of the Telangana plan, the Odisha unit of the grand old party conducted a mock “marriage ceremony” of the ruling BJD and the BJP on January 25.

It came amid the party’s efforts to build a narrative on the “BJD-BJP nexus” and the issue of “Odia pride”, while projecting the Congress as the only alternative ahead of the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, to be held simultaneously later this year.

“The BJD and the BJP are in a live-in relationship for the past 23 years. In India, parents don’t like live-in relationships. So the Congress has formalised their (BJD and BJP) relationship by getting them married,” the newly-appointed AICC in-charge of Odisha, Ajoy Kumar, told reporters after the January 25 programme.

Kumar, along with other senior leaders including Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Sarat Pattanayak and former ministers, marched from the Congress Bhawan to the Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar to conduct the “wedding” that created ripples on social media. The leaders danced like baraatis as they distributed invitation cards, while a song composed to expose the alleged nexus blared in the background.

While the groom was seen wearing a BJP mask, the bride’s face was covered with a BJD mask. The Congress workers were wearing masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister