Malkangiri: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had stormed into Malkangiri by wresting all the seats from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in 2017 panchayat elections.
However, the situation has reversed in the recently-concluded panchayat polls: The BJD has completely decimated the BJP as the saffron has failed to grab a single seat in the district.
According to political observers, this time, BJP leaders failed to approach people in rural pockets.
As a result, voters got disconnected from the saffron party. Malkangiri MLA Aditya Madhi (BJP) and zilla parishad chairperson Dasrath Padiami were seriously ill before the panchayat elections.
So, they failed to devote time to campaigning. However, the BJP candidates have lost the polls against the BJD and Congress by slender margins.
“The electoral loss will be reviewed,” said Ashok Parida, former president of the BJP’s district unit. The BJD has won 12 ZP seats. Much ahead of the rural polls, the BJD had managed to include 5,000 voters of Bengali community (Matua) into its fold.
To counter the BJD, the BJP had roped in a BJP MLA from West Bengal (Matua community) in the campaigning for over a week.
However, his expected influence on the Bengali voters failed to work on Matua community, it was said.
On the other hand, well ahead of the panchayat elections, veteran Congress leader and former Nabarangpur MP Pradeep Majhi and a host of frontline Congress leaders had joined BJD.
It was apprehended that Majhi’s exit from Congress will completely wipe out Congress in the district and bolster the base of the BJD. However, this did not happen.
Rather, the Congress strengthened its base and grabbed three ZP seats. More importantly, the Congress could improve its tally without using money and muscle power, political observers noted.
PNN
