Naveen’s Praise For Modi: Who Stands To Gain?

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the 2024 twin elections, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has once again indicated his preference for the Narendra Modi-led NDA dispensation over the newly-formed INDIA alliance, making apparent his strategy to reduce the Odisha BJP’s opposition to his party.

On Sunday, Naveen, who is also president of BJD, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for foreign policy and his steps to eradicate corruption while rating his government “8 out of 10”.

“I rate the Modi government 8 out of 10 because of what he has done for foreign policy and also in various other matters… also there has been less corruption in this (NDA) government,” Naveen during an interaction programme at a literary festival in the city.

He also agreed that his government shares cordial ties with the Centre, saying it was in Odisha’s interest. “It is important to have the Centre as a partner in the development of the state,” he added.

Since 2019 the support of Naveen’s BJD has been crucial for the NDA government, including during the recent passage of Delhi Services Bill in Parliament and no-confidence motion against the Modi dispensation. As a result, the BJD, while professing a policy of equidistance from the BJP and the Congress, has strategically inclined towards the saffron party. Even the BJP national leadership owing to its obvious compulsions has been quite muted in its attack of the BJD. This has forced the BJP’s Odisha unit, despite being the principal opposition party, to not go full throttle against Naveen & Co. Incidentally, its former BJD insiders like MLAs Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Pradeep Panigrahi who have been giving headache to the Conch party than the opposition.

At this juncture, the BJD bosses would obviously chose to have good ties with the BJP top leadership and ensure the saffron brigade remains at bay in the state. Though some state BJP leaders like Leader of Opposition Jayanarayan Mishra and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi are aggressively targeting the state government over the alleged dominance of bureaucrats, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his visit to Odisha on August 5, calling Naveen a ‘popular’ CM and praising his government for “showing the path to other states” in tackling natural disasters and the decline in Maoist influence in the state has not helped the saffron cause in the state. Even visuals of Shah having a discussion with IAS officer and 5T secretary V K Pandian, who is considered to be Naveen’s close confidant, has put the BJP’s ploy under the lens.

This was in sharp contrast to Shah’s “jala hua transformer” (burnt out transformer) remarks aimed at the BJD government in the run-up to the 2019 polls when the BJP failed miserably in its Mission 120 plan and settled for 23 MLAs as against BJD’s 112.

The BJP, however, has dismissed speculation about a possible alliance with the BJD in 2024 by maintaining that it would fight the BJD at the hustings. The question doing the rounds now is: Will Naveen’s latest praise for Modi help or harm the BJD cause? In other words, can the Odisha BJP go all-out against BJD considering the party’s national compulsions?