Bhubaneswar: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Odisha and address a rally Saturday in Cuttack to mark the fourth anniversary of the NDA government at the Centre has stirred up speculations ahead of the simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
Ever since BJP national chief Amit Shah set ‘mission 120 plus’ target for next year’s Assembly elections, the BJP has been claiming that Odisha is a focus state in the PM’s development agenda.
However, what stand as hindrances to BJP’s aspirations are the strong organisational base of the BJD and the ever-growing popularity of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
After gaining a firm foothold in the northeastern states of Assam and Tripura, the BJP’s target is to establish their base in Odisha and West Bengal. However, the recent panchayat polls in West Bengal have proved that the party can temporarily shelve its hopes there. Hence Odisha has now become the party’s main focus and what better than to have the Prime Minister deliver the fourth anniversary address and kick start its campaign for 2019.
But then Odisha too has not warmed up to the BJP’s so called success programmes like ‘Demonetisation’ and ‘Goods and Services Tax’ – the thumping loss the party suffered in the recently-conducted Bijepur by-election bear testimony to this fact. So the ‘Modi factor’ remains its only hope.
According to party sources, the PM may contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from two seats with one of those being ‘Jagannath Dham’ Puri. While the party is yet to openly say anything on this issue, PM’s visit to Odisha, instead of focusing on poll-bound Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, is seen as the groundwork towards wooing the people of Odisha.
“The Prime Minister is coming here only to keep his promise to the people of Odisha. He will inform them about the major achievements of the NDA government during the last four years,” said BJP state unit spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.
BJD leader and government chief whip in the state assembly Amar Satpathy however, said Friday that the PM’s visit of at a time like this would be akin to rubbing salt on injuries of the people of the state.
“The Centre’s silence on the Mahanadi dispute, spiralling fuel prices and demonetisation has adversely affected people in rural pockets. Are these the achievements of the Modi government,” he asked sarcastically while claiming that the PM’s visit will only boomerang for the BJP.
‘Golden chapter in Indo-Bangla ties’
Santiniketan (West Bengal): The last few years have been a golden chapter in India-Bangladesh relationship when complicated issues of land and coastal boundaries were resolved, PM Narendra Modi said here Friday. Echoing his views, Bangla PM Sheikh Hasina, who inaugurated the newly-constructed Bangladesh Bhavan here along with Modi, voiced hope that the remaining issues will also be resolved in a ‘friendly atmosphere’.
