Odisha: Assembly elections
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
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2014
Cakewalk In State Polls Too
Bhubaneswar:
TEAM TOI
The Times of India May 17 2014
At the time of going to press, BJD led in 20 LS seats and 117 assembly seats, an improvement over 14 LS seats and 103 assembly seats in 2009.
BJP was ahead in just two LS and 10 assembly seats. Congres was ahead in 16 assembly seats and failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha. In 2009, Congres had won six Lok Sabha and 27 assembly seats.
Speculation was rife that Patnaik might face a rebellion, having denied tickets to *Leads till 11.30pm several sitting LS and assembly members, but results proved otherwise.
When his performance and Odisha's backwardness was questioned by Modi, Sonia and Rahul, Patnaik dismissed them as “outsiders on a vote-shopping trip to Odisha“.
2019
Ashok Pradhan, May 24, 2019: The Times of India
Bucking the national trend one more time, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik vanquished BJP in the battle for Odisha. While the final result of the assembly election — which was held alongside the Lok Sabha polls — is awaited, the EC update at the time of going to the press said that BJD had won 12 seats and was leading in 101 seats. BJP was leading in 22 seats and Congress in 9. Elections were held for 146 assembly seats out of a total of 147.
BJP improved its tally from the 10 assembly seats it won in 2014, but failed to stop Naveen from ruling the mineral-rich coastal state for a record fifth straight term. His stellar show in the assembly election was complemented by BJD’s ability to hold its own in Lok Sabha polls. Proving the exit polls wrong, BJD was leading in 12 of the 21 seats and BJP, in eight.
Congress, which was BJD’s main opposition party until the emergence of BJP, suffered a serious erosion in the state.
Like previous polls, this time too, BJD sought votes in Naveen’s name. ‘Brand Naveen’ is built on the 73-year-old bachelor’s ‘Mr Clean’ image, his statesmanship and decency in public life. Many feel Naveen played his trump card just before the poll dates were announced by promising to reserve 33% of the state’s 21 Lok Sabha seats for women candidates. Naveen also replaced several sitting MLAs and MPs to beat anti-incumbency.
True to Naveen’s style, all this was achieved without rancour. The sharp words between him and Modi during the campaign dissolved as the state battled a devastating cyclone. The CM seemed to inch closer to BJP in the aftermath of Cyclone Fani; critics say he never moved away from his former ally in the first place.
Details
May 24, 2019: The Times of India
From: May 24, 2019: The Times of India
The BJP juggernaut in the country was halted on Thursday almost single-handedly by one man — Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The state, which witnessed simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections, decisively handed a mandate to BJD and endorsed a record fifth consecutive term for Naveen as chief minister.
Naveen’s BJD seems to be heading for a landslide victory in the assembly. It won 12 seats and was leading in 101. In 2014, it had won 117 seats.
BJP was leading in 22 seats, Congress in nine, CPI in one and an Independent candidate in another seat. The state has altogether 147 assembly seats. Polls to the Patkura constituency were countermanded after the death of a BJD candidate.
BJP, which carried out a campaign centred on the need for a ‘double engine’ (same party governments at the Centre and the state), could improve its tally from 10 assembly seats in 2014 to 21 now and replace Congress as the largest opposition party in Odisha.
A confident Naveen had announced his victory after three of the four phases of polling. The normally taciturn chief minister had even invited Modi to his swearing-in. By then, polling in 105 of the 147 assembly seats had been completed.
“I humbly invite Modiji to attend the swearing-in ceremony of BJD,” Naveen had said while addressing an election rally on April 24. The prescience was taken with a pinch of salt by political analysts, who said it was a way of enthusing party workers.
“Naveen was confident because he knew the electorate and his political opponents well. There is no leader in the opposition to match his stature,” said Amareshwar Mishra, a retired professor of political science from Berhampur University.
Outsmarting the Modi government, Naveen had launched the much-acclaimed Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme, which provides cash assistance of Rs 10,000 annually to around 50 lakh small and marginal farmers. He did this days before the Centre came out with a similar cash aid scheme, PM-KISAN. Naveen had also rejected the Centre’s flagship health insurance scheme, Ayushman Bharat, to launch his own Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana.
BJD’s victory can be attributed to its government’s ‘cradle to grave’ welfare schemes. From a kilo of rice at Re 1, considered key to its win in 2014, to this term’s rice-dalma meals for Rs 5 in urban areas, proteinrich food for pregnant women and lactating mothers under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, Rs 5,000 cash for pregnant women under the Mamata scheme, laptops and bicycles for school students and the Mahaprayana hearse service — BJD’s welfare schemes have had a deep impact.
Add to that the 73-year-old bachelor’s austere lifestyle. Naveen has kept his personal image spotless, much like the loosefitting white kurta-pyjamas he wears. Not known for ostentation, he has achieved a cult following among the people of the state. Naveen’s gamble in giving a third of BJD’s Lok Sabha tickets to women brought him rich dividends in the elections. The women candidates not only passed the poll test, they helped him keep his traditional vote bank of rural women intact.
BJD’s sweep of the assembly polls was aided by the lack of an alternative among the opposition parties. A resurgent BJP fared well under Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s watch, but could not make much of a dent into BJD’s prospects despite remarkably improving its vote share. For the time being in Odisha, the Naveen era continues.
