Ashutosh Mishra 
Bhubaneswar: Yet to recover from its shock defeat in the last assembly elections, the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which ruled the state uninterrupted for 24 years since 2000, is not only seeking course correction but also trying to win back the confidence of people by raising Odisha-centric issues which did not receive the kind of importance they deserved during Patnaik’s last term as the chief minister of the state.
The party paid a heavy price for relying too heavily on Patnaik’s charisma and the influence of his chief aide, former IAS officer V.K. Pandian. Notably, issues like special category state status for Odisha and the threat posed by the Polavaram irrigation project in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to tribal settlements in Malkangiri district were treated as secondary concerns.
These issues, which could easily have resonated with the voters, did not even figure prominently in the BJD’s campaign in the last elections which focused more on countering the raft of allegations made against Patnaik and Pandian by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which launched a frontal attack on the duo with Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself leading the charge. Caught in the BJP’s trap, the BJD’s campaign lost its sheen and the party was rejected by the same people who had kept it in power for 24 long years.
With Pandian out of the picture and Patnaik focused on reviving the BJD’s prospects, the party is shifting its attention to key issues affecting Odisha. These include the Polavaram project and special category status, as well as the Mahanadi dispute and women’s empowerment. By bringing these issues back to the forefront, the BJD aims to regain its footing and improve its standing in the state.
A BJD delegation led by former minister Debi Prasad Mishra recently met top officials of ministries of environment and tribal affairs in New Delhi and apprised them of the threat perception from Polavaram irrigation project to the tribal residents of Malkangiri, especially in its Motu and Padia blocks where more than 200 villages were likely to be inundated by the backwaters of the project. The team also submitted a memorandum to the central officials underscoring the urgent need for addressing the issues of lack of transparency, incomplete backwater studies and insufficient compensation plans for the project.
The BJD has alleged that significant changes have been made to the originally designed flood discharge capacity of the dam in the multi-purpose project on which work began in 2014, a decade after Bhoomi puja (ground-breaking ceremony). Patnaik’s party has accused the project authorities of increasing the flood discharge (capacity) of the dam from 36 lakh cusecs to 50 lakh cusecs, without sufficient consideration of the backwater impact in the upstream states of Odisha and Chhattisgarh. This has triggered apprehensions about submergence of land in Motu and Padia blocks of Malkangiri.
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Former BJD MLA Latika Pradhan said her party was justified in raising the issue as it concerns the life and livelihood of thousands of tribal people residing in Malkangiri. “We took it up with the central government authorities in the past as well. But there has been no positive response from them. In fact, the Centre is actively supporting the project without showing any concern for the interests of Odisha,” she alleged.
Pradhan also justified the party’s demand for special category state status to Odisha which has been a victim of recurrent natural disasters over the years. The issue was recently taken up by BJD Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra who urged the Centre to accord the special category status to the state considering its vulnerability to natural calamities which inflict heavy economic losses.
Ever since the super-cyclone of 1999, which had left nearly 10,000 people dead and the entire coastal belt in ruins, the state has seen many such disasters including the cyclones Phailin, Hudhud, Titli, Fani and Dana, each one setting the state exchequer back by a few hundred crores. The state, thus, badly needs central support and special category status would entitle it to a more favourable 90:10 centre-state funding ratio for central programmes. This would help Odisha better utilise its resources for reconstruction efforts in the wake of natural disasters.
The demand for special category status was first raised by the BJD when it formed its maiden government in the state in 2000 with BJP as its coalition partner. Though Patnaik as the chief minister pushed hard for the acceptance of the demand by the Atal Behari Vajpayee government at Centre, he did not get any support from the BJP. While the BJP remained lukewarm about the demand, Patnaik kept raising it from time to time. However, it was ignored by successive governments at the Centre. In 2019 Patnaik urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the states hit by major disasters as ‘Special Focus States’ with benefits of the special category status for a specified period. However, even this demand is yet to be met.
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The special category demand had dominated the state polls in 2014 with BJD scoring a resounding victory as the issue struck an immediate chord with the people. The party had also succeeded in whipping up regional sentiments in those elections by centre-staging the demands for the resolution of Mahanadi water dispute with Chhatisgarh and recalibration of Polavaram project to address Odisha’s interests. However, successive victories in 2014 and 2019 elections had contrasting effects on the BJD which was being hailed as the most successful regional party of the state. While these victories boosted the confidence of BJD immensely they also made its top leadership complacent. Five back to back poll victories had created an aura of invincibility around Patnaik which ultimately proved to be his downfall.
Political analyst Rajat Kujur feels that the complacency created by BJD’s successive victories was primarily responsible for major issues like special category state demand and Polavaram concerns, which had kept the party connected to the people, being relegated to the background.
“The defeat might have shocked the party but it has also made it realise the importance of taking up these issues to win back the confidence of people. Soon we will also find it raising the issue of the Mahanadi dispute which is pending before a tribunal,” said Kujur.