The BJP suffered a demoralising defeat in the by-poll to Bijepur Assembly seat which it had billed as a ‘semi-final’ to the 2019 general elections in Odisha that will end the long BJD rule in the state. A seat waiting to be won was lost for the BJP as it appeared to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory largely due to arrogance, aggression and lack of teamwork, particularly when the victorious BJD had strategically resorted to ‘sympathy and humility’.
The results were shocking for the saffron party as it failed to retain the 92,000 votes that it had secured to win the zilla parishad elections held a year ago. It may be recalled that the victory in rural polls across Odisha had prompted party president Amit Shah launch ‘Mission 120 +’ in Odisha.
The party which went gung-ho after the rural polls claimed to strengthen itself further by Amit Shah’s ‘mo booth sabuthu majbut’ programme was unable to retain its zilla parsihad vote share. The assembly by-poll saw a reversal in the sense that the BJD won the seat with a margin of over 41,000 votes.
Similar to the panchayat polls, the Congress was completely wiped out. The party candidate for the by-election Pranay Sahu lost his deposit securing a mere 11,000 votes. Ironically, Bijepur seat was held by the Congress leader Subal Sahu in the last three elections since 2004. His death had necessitated the by-poll.
From day one of the campaign , it was clearly a battle between the BJD and BJP. Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has positioned himself as the ‘face’ of the BJP in Odisha, led the aggressive campaign saying Bijepur will signal the end of the corrupt BJD rule in Odisha in 2019.
He worked tirelessly, roped in half a dozen central minister including Ms Smriti Irani and a large number of Odia cine stars. But none of it worked. The rural polls apart, the area had been neglected for years. Drinking water, roads, electricity and irrigation were major issues against the 18 year Naveen Patnaik regime.
The delay by at least four months in holding the by-poll worked to the advantage of the BJD as the government announced mega schemes for Bijepur and even started token work at the ground level. The BJP fielded Ashok Panigrahi, a rebel BJD leader triggering resentment of BJP old timers in Bijepur and the resignation of the district president.
Even leaders like Subas Chouhan who contested the 2014 parliamentary election was relegated to the background. Aggressive high blitz campaign and rhetoric in the rural areas as against the sympathy card and humility of CM Naveen Patnaik who had fielded Subal Sahu’s widow turned out to be counter productive for the BJP.
A fierce campaign which saw few ugly incidents of violence – hurling of shoes at the CM at a campaign meeting, attack on four BJD workers in which one was killed, all worked against the BJP. After the campaign sections of the BJP had, in private, said “we hope the margin of defeat is not more than five to 10,000 if it is more than that we have had it”. As it turned out today, their prayers were dashed and the margin was over 41,000.