Outgoing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik appeared to have committed the cardinal miscalculation by grooming VK Pandian, a Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat-turned-politician, as his heir apparent.

Further, empowering the non-Odia to singlehandedly manage party affairs and electioneering is widely believed to be a potential factor in depriving the regional satrap of earning the rare distinction of being India’s longest-serving chief minister.

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As proverbial witch-hunting and blame game has surcharged the Odisha politics after the BJP ousted Patnaik after 24 years at the helm of governance and is all set to form its maiden government in the coastal state, it is Pandian who is being largely singled out for the poll debacle of the regional party.

With Pandian taking centre stage in the poll campaign with senior leaders sidelined, the BJD walked into the “Odia Ashmita” (pride) trap laid by BJP to bite the dust in twin polls.

A resurgent BJP chalked out its strategy well ahead of the polls to rake up the Odia pride issue given the all-pervasive dominance of the Tamil politician in the BJD and Patnaik’s overdependence on his trusted aide.

As the saffron party ruled out the coalition with the regional party on 14 March and decided to fight the polls alone to uphold the Odia pride, BJD’s principal political opponent had given ample hint at the focus of its poll campaign to dethrone the regional party reducing it to ‘zero’ in Lok Sabha polls. However, Patnaik had failed to read between the lines of his opponent’s gambit.

“The party will fight the election to uphold Odia’s self-esteem and will shoulder the responsibility of each and every Odia,” Odisha BJP Chief Samal asserted in the ‘X’ handle as early as 14 March.

On expected lines, the BJP, aware of the popularity of Patnaik in Odia voters despite a strong anti-incumbency, let loose a blistering campaign on Odia Asmita firing artillery at Pandian accusing the ex-bureaucrat of holding Patnaik in the twilight of his life captive and hijacking the governance and power from his mentor.

The emotive issue appeared to have gone down well with the voters as BJP lined up its heavyweights including Prime Minister Modi, a host of Central ministers, and BJP-ruled chief ministers to stir the minds of voters to dislodge BJD from power.

Raking up the health condition of Naveen Patnaik, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said during a poll rally that there might be a conspiracy behind the ‘sudden’ deterioration of the health condition of Odisha CM. The BJP government, if comes to power in Odisha, will constitute a special committee to ascertain the deterioration of his health in the last year, Modi had said implicitly insinuating Pandian’s role in the matter. Perhaps it proved the last straw in the turn of events that went against the BJD as Modi’s remark had unnerved everybody including the Odia electors.

Though the BJD had come out with a list of 40 star campaigners, Patnaik and Pandian were sighted addressing rallies to seek votes. While Patnaik’s brief speeches hardly lasted for two to three minutes, it was Pandian who dominated the proceedings with no star campaigner in sight.

The Odia people were deeply upset over a non-Odia ruling the state in the proxy. Our party could sense the public perception. A non-Odia seeking votes for non-Odia voters was a blessing in disguise for us. The more Pandian campaigned, he ate into votes. We also cashed in on the emotive missing key episode of Lord Jagannath’s Ratna Bhandar to turn the tide in our favour, confided a veteran leader of Odisha BJP.