By Sushil Kutty
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who heads the Biju Janata Dal, can make a salutary contribution to the combined opposition’s goal of ousting Prime Minister Narendra Modi only if his party makes a clean sweep of Odisha’s Lok Sabha seats in 2024. That being said, Naveen Patnaik is smarter than Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who he met a couple of days ago, and can definitely hold his own against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he met after his rendezvous with Bihar’s wannabe Prime Minister.
Sections of the polity have been selling Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as the glue that can hold the disparate opposition parties together. Unfortunately, this glue lacks the ‘kwik’ and it’s a wonder these sections of the polity continue to see promise in the Bihar Chief Minister who refuses to wake up from his 24/7 PM dream. Could Nitish Kumar be the reason why Naveen Patnaik will not join an opposition alliance stitched by Nitish Kumar?
That is food for thought. Patnaik met Nitish Kumar when voting was on in Karnataka and most opinion polls had given Congress the edge. Yet Patnaik wasn’t impressed. Could it be because he does not believe in opinion and exit polls? Naveen Patnaik won five consecutive assembly elections not because of opinion and exit polls. And Karnataka is not a closed chapter, yet. Consider the import of voting percentage jumping from 68% to 73.5% between “9 pm and 11 pm”, long after voting closed!
Watching the inexplicable spurt, Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami couldn’t hide his glee. Till then he was trying his best to defeat the debate that Modi would be responsible for BJP’s defeat. But the sudden and inexplicable surge in voting percentage told him something else: Beating Narendra Modi in political games is not a piece of cake, not when Modi controlled both horse and horse cart! If anybody knows this better than most, it’s Naveen Patnaik. The Odisha Chief Minister stands cleansed of all ambitions – he would rather butt his head against concrete.
Naveen Patnaik ruled out joining any opposition front ahead of 2024. “No, not as far as I am concerned. Not now,” he told the media. Patnaik believes in Tagore’s ‘Akela Chalo’, whether in assembly elections or in the general elections. “That has always been our principle,” he told the same media hounds. There was no point arguing. Patnaik stood neutral and wouldn’t join any non-BJP platform.
That is a setback to the opposition’s unity in diversity call. In the nine years since Narendra Modi took centre-stage, this is the first time the Opposition is buoyant and pumped up. The feeling is the BJP, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is on the back-foot. Yet the opposition parties cannot come together on a single platform. The uncertainty and surety, both, is not lost on Naveen Patnaik. Why on earth should the BJD join any alliance stricken with mortal doubt?
Also, the Opposition lacks convincing leadership. There’s nobody with charisma, and nationwide acceptability. A shrewd politician like Patnaik knows this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity is unmatchable. This lacuna is not lost on Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The lack of charismatic leadership is the Opposition’s Achilles heel. And to think that Modi is handicapped by Modi-Adani (Modani) and BBC documentary!
Patnaik met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the discussions centred on Odisha; on the Shree Jagannath International Airport in Puri, for which the PM promised “help in every way possible.” Patnaik, who couldn’t possibly lose a sixth term as Chief Minister, is comfortable running Odisha the way he likes it, with no interference. The Prime Minister is not a threat to Naveen Patnaik and his government. Even if Modi gets a third consecutive term, nothing will change. Why sour BJD-BJP ties by joining an opposition alliance that may or may not deliver victory?
The point is, the Biju Janata Dal straddles the Odisha political landscape like the shadow cast by an enormous flying saucer. No party has the calibre and capacity to beat the BJD. The Congress tried, and failed. The Bharatiya Janata Party tried, and failed. More importantly, the BJD stops at Odisha’s borders. It does not trespass into other states. Also, the deliberately maintained low-profile of Naveen Patnaik is neither shrill like that of TMC’s Mamata Banerjee nor loud like that of the Aam Aadmi Party’s Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Patnaik doesn’t ruffle anybody’s hair. He has the rare quality to not only stay out of sight, but also out of mind. Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao cannot excite him nor can ‘disqualified Congress MP’ Rahul Gandhi’s plights move him. What the multitude of opposition parties did has so far failed to inspire Patnaik. In his own soft manner and demeanour Naveen Patnaik ramrods the BJD and brooks no defiance. His writ runs in the party and, in his Odisha stronghold, he is an exception to the saying “no man is an island unto himself”. There is not one single compelling argument that compels Naveen Patnaik to join any opposition alliance. (IPA Service)
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