Odisha’s Baijayant Panda In BJP’s Poll Army

Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s national vice-president and former MP Baijayant Panda is among a core group of top party leaders who form the BJP’s formidable poll army for the Assembly elections in 2022 and the General Elections in 2024, according to India Today’s cover story, ‘BJP Mission 2022’, in its December 13 issue.

The 57-year-old politician from Odisha is in charge of party affairs in Delhi and Assam, and is consulted on business and economic affairs.

Union Minister for Skill Development and Education Dharmendra Pradhan, who is also from Odisha, is also among the BJP’s poll strategists. He is election management in-charge for UP.

The story, written by Anilesh S Mahajan, details the crucial role of the party’s poll army as the BJP prepares for seven Assembly elections scheduled in 2022 — UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur, Goa (which go to the polls in February), and Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh (in late 2022) and the significance of the state elections, particularly UP, in the run-up to the 2024 General Elections.

Before that, there are other challenges for the BJP. It has to overcome the economic, social and health impact of COVID-19. Elections to 74 Rajya Sabha seats will be held in 2022. The country will also elect a new President next year.

For Odisha’s Panda and Pradhan to be in the BJP’s poll army is no mean feat. As the story explains, “In the past seven years, the party, first under Union Home Minister Amit Shah and then under party president JP Nadda, has become a formidable electoral army, never resting on its laurels and learning from its failures”.

“The Modi-Shah-Nadda troika has made the party line clear: it is looking for younger, savvier leadership, besides making it more inclusive and equitable, with a focus on women, OBCs, Dalits and tribal people. To enable this, the party has replaced state leaders with ruthless urgency,” it says.

The article is accompanied by an interview of Nadda, in which he explains what makes the BJP such a lean and mean electoral machine.