Samikhsya Bureau
Pending the outcome from the Assembly election in Patkura, in Kendrapada district, one thing that emerges clear that, the cordial flirting between the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party still remains hidden behind a suspense that only the top most echelons of the two parties know.
Looking back, the friendly relationship between the both parties trigger a curiosity that is more or less unprecedented in the annals of Indian politics of very recent times. At a time when the BJP appears to be in a surge to see the Indian polity free of the Congress and has been successful also in its mission after the recent general elections, the saffron top brasses seem working out on the models to reduce the prevalence of the regional parties as well.
And to a great extent, the mission has ostensibly shown results if seen in the context of the political turmoil manifesting itself in states like Karnataka and West Bengal. Regardless of the ideologies flaunted by the BJP, the goal of the latter appears clear.
It can be well recounted that the emergence of regional outfits from the early and mid 90s when regional parties grew and gained good footholds in the country’s politics. However, there were certain phases when the Congress played the role to destabilise many regional parties to expand its political outreach and, in short, the BJP is now playing exactly a similar role to keep many non-BJP ruled states in the tenterhooks.
The successes in this regard achieved by the saffron brigade is there for all to see. Even after losing three Hindi heat-land states such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh to the Congress in the assembly polls last year, the BJP has been able to recapture its momentum and effect a brake on the Congress by brow-beating the latter in the General elections in almost all the states barring Odisha.
Odisha has so far remained the Achilles Heel for the saffron where BJP has failed to outsmart the Naveen-led BJD in 2014 and in 2019 despite the wave in favour of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whether the BJP has come to realise that Naveen, with his existing political acceptance cant be contested or there is any other mutual compulsion behind the bonhomie which is beyond the comprehension of many political ‘pundits’ here.
But, in politics, sometimes, exigencies weigh over ideology or bonhomie and from that point of view one can draw an assumption that the BJD is required to be vigilant and pussyfoot through the situation rather than being complacent about the purported goodwill between the both.
