Nearly ten months passed and the double-engine government of the Bharatiya Janata Party has yet to leave an impression of its relevance as an alternative in Odisha. For which it obviously has to toil hard to deliver through an outreach better than its predecessors.

But instead the BJP bandwagon here seems working overtime to go hammer and tongs against Naveen Patnaik and painting him as a remnant of a huge waterloo a few months back.

Is Naveen a dead horse?

Bharatiya Janata Party loses ground to the Biju Janata Dal(BJD) in Odisha as the former tries hard to paint Naveen as politically a dead horse.

In fact, minus the Narendra Modi charisma it’s all about an empty mat on which the local BJP cadre seems engaged in fisticuffs while resorting to occasional jibes at the BJD under Naveen Patnaik and engaged in a notional countdown for BJD’s end in Odisha.

Sadly for the saffron brigade here, people on the ground are not ready to buy any narrative while they themselves are seared under an unprecedented inflation that has reached up to the neck of the common man. It has become uncontrollable and this is a view that comes from the single engine dispensation in Delhi.

It is not the BJD but from the Centre’ Bureau of Statistics Odisha has today the highest inflation in the country followed by Bihar and Karnataka.

Spiraling Inflation

In this regard the opposition has already dealt a blow by revealing what the Central report on inflation said. The concerned secretary at the centre, Saurav Garg has nearly expressed his apprehensions about further inflations through a notice to the state almost chiding the state to initiate quick steps to put a check on increasing prices of commodities.

Speaking in the State Assembly fairly recently, senior BJD legislature Ranendra Pratap Swain fired salvoes at the Double-Engine government in Odisha and mockingly dismissed the ‘slogan’ of NDA ‘Sabka sath, sabka vikash’.

In an apparent swipe at the Prime Minister, Swain urged the BJP to paste that letter from the Bureau of Statistics report 2014-2023, on the 56” wide chest.  

Today in Odisha, the daily wage is the lowest paid but is under pressure to toil for 12 hrs a day instead of 8 hrs. Who goes out at the end of a day to buy things but, sadly, cannot get a bag full of vegetables even with rs.100.

The central report virtually warned the State to take remedial measures to control prices. While vegetable price inflation crosses 30.59 % and edible oil now remains a luxury item with a 70.6 % rise in prices and fruits 8.86%.

As far as inflation is concerned, the life of a common man has just gone wayward under a record inflation of 7%.

Politically also nothing is as simple as it appears within the BJP here. “An internecine conflict of interests is quite visible. Post the last elections, the BJP has no state President and it is more than nine months since the outgoing president Manmohan Samal holds the post as a stop gap arrangement. That speaks a lot” said Rabi Das , senior political analyst.

“In fact, it is not within the capacity of the state leaders and it is the central leadership who has to decide but the latter must be watchful about the disparity haunting the state cadre” added Das

So many leaders have their own desires to head the party and some look for one of their choices to get crowned as state president. Even rumors galore that Samal is also keen to be reelected.

And the paradox is that so far, the party has not been able to elect its district level president`s let alone the State president.

If You Like This Story, Support NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ SUPPORTER

₹ 10 - ₹ 1000

NYOOOZ FRIEND

₹ 2000 - ₹ 5000

Your support to NYOOOZ will help us to continue create and publish news for and from smaller cities, which also need equal voice as much as citizens living in bigger cities have through mainstream media organizations.

Stay updated with all the Latest Bhubaneswar headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.