Will Naveen blow poll beagle at meet with BJD MLAs at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Aug 28?

Bhubaneswar: In what is seen as a preparation for run-up to Assembly elections in Odisha in 2024, chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik has convened a meeting of all party MLAs in Bhubaneswar.

At the meeting, scheduled to be held at Kalinga Stadium on August 28, Naveen has sought the MLAs to present the implementation of welfare schemes of the government, their progress and present status. The legislators’ involvement in the progress of their constituencies, connect with the voters and people’s support for the party will be under scrutiny at the meeting.

Though officially it will be an interaction between the BJD president and party MLAs, the inside sources said it would decide the fate of the present leaders in getting the tickets in upcoming elections. Naveen has sought to know first-hand information at grassroots level from the legislators.

Coming close on the heels of Cabinet reshuffle by Naveen, the meeting is perceived as a platform to draw up the strategy for the Assembly polls. Though BJD performed exceptionally well in the panchayat and urban elections in the state in near past, Naveen is not a leader to leave anything to chance and would want to plug the loopholes, if any in the party organisation.

Despite the government’s efforts to cover all-round development of the people, be it education, health, economy or industry, it has been targeted for the lapses in certain quarters or on part of some of its leaders. The meeting is expected to offer Naveen a chance to have the picture of the other side to help him take decision on prospective candidates.

The political analysts consider the meeting to have come at the right time, particularly in view of floods almost half the districts of the state. Though the government and local administration has managed to keep the human casualty to the minimum possible as wanted by the chief minister, the loss of properties is tipped to be huge.

The factors responsible for the loss like human error, management mistakes, technical drawbacks or coordination failure would be the highlights that Naveen would want to know to pinpoint the accountability, the sources said.

Though it is considered too early to prepare a gameplan for the state elections, the political pundits view the meeting as a an enabling front for Naveen to set his target and fix his strategy.