Bhubaneswar: Once considered invincible and the height of his popularity, Biju Janata Dal President and Odisha’s five time Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the first time in his life experienced defeat as the state politics witnessed an unexpected change.
The 2024 will remain as a milestone in Odisha’s history as the political landscape in the state underwent an unexpected change, the state’s popular “Green” was replaced by “Saffron”.
This is also for the first time in Odisha’s political history that an election was fought and won over an aggressive campaign on an emotional narrative of Odia Asmita (Pride).
While politicians of all hue considered 2024 as a “Bad Year” for Naveen, the people close to him see it differently. He lost polls, but gained politically as well as personally. He now knew the real hardship of politics and his health also remarkably improved after the 2024 elections. The tallest man in Odisha politics, who was requiring someone to hold his mike to address the gathering, now walks like a sports person. Defeat has brought strength in Naveen, who is known as a “Silent Soldier” in the political battle field.
He has proved several times how to win over the rivals and now the time has come for him to defeat the rivals.
It was a bad period for Naveen because not only he failed to return to power, but also lost all the candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. This is for the first time that his regional outfit-BJD, could not open its account in the Lok Sabha. The party which won 113 assembly seats in 2019 elections, lost 62 seats while its candidates could manage to win in only 51 seats in 2024 polls.
Naveen had to face the defeat at Kantabanji assembly segment in Bolangir district. Legendary Biju Patnaik’s five time Chief Minister son Naveen, was defeated by Laxman Bag of BJP by 16,344 votes. The anti-BJD wave was so intense that Shri Patnaik could narrowly save his home seat “Hinjili” in Ganjam district. He won the seat for the sixth consecutive term, but the victory margin this time was only 4,636 votes. He had won the seat with a margin of over 60,160 in the previous 2019 elections.
With end of the elections, Naveen found himself in a space on the left side (opposition) of the Speaker in the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The party which was governing the state (2000 to 2024) and politicians of all hues aspire to become part of the regional party, suddenly become a place to abandon. BJD’s woes were compounded when two of its Rajya Sabha MPs (Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar) switched over to BJP and got elected to the seats vacated by them, making a first such incident in the Odisha’s political history.
Though all poll scientists, experts and some of party men pointed fingers towards his close aide VK Pandian for BJD’s defeat, Naveen himself came to rescue of the bureaucrat turned politician. “It has also come to my attention that there has been some criticism of Shri Pandian. This is unfortunate. As an officer, he did excellent work. He did an excellent job helping with the two cyclones and the COVID-19 epidemic in our state. Later, he retired from bureaucracy and joined my party and he has contributed largely to that by doing excellent work. He is a person of integrity and honesty and he should be respected for that,” he said silencing critics.
However, following a massive poll debacle of BJD, Shri Pandian volunteered to announce: “My intent in joining politics was only to assist Naveen Babu, and now I consciously decide to withdraw from active politics. I am sorry if I have hurt anyone on this journey. I am sorry if this campaign narrative against me played a part in BJD’s loss.”
While addressing party men on BJD’s 28th foundation day on December 26, said: “I admit that the BJD could not successfully counter their (BJP) lies, their negative campaign, and false narratives on social media. Now, people are realising that they came to power by making false promises.”
While BJP formed government by winning 78 seats in the 147 member Odisha assembly, the BJP got 51 seats followd by Congress 14, CPIM)-1 and Indepedent-3. Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, BJP swept the polls with 20 seats while Congress could manage to get one seat.
As Shri Patnaik’s strong green (BJD’s polls colour) fort collapses, the saffron shined all along riding on the Odisha “Swabhiman” (Odia Asmita) wave. PM Narendra Modi and HM Amit Shah Combine zeroed in on a four time tribal MLA Mohan Charan Majhi, a name never being discussed for the plump post of Chief Minister. The tribal leader from mineral rich Keonjhar district outnumbered all in terms of the “Luck factor” and become the state’s Chief Minister, who has been earning popularity by the day as a “People’s CM”.
A day after Shri Majhi taking oath, his entire Cabinet was in Puri and they opened the four gates of Shree Jagannath Temple as promised by the BJP before elections. This is not all, the BJP government also after a long gap of 46 years, opened the doors of Lord’s Ratna Bhandar (treasury) in the 12th century shrine for the repair and inventory of valuables. The new government also fulfilled its promises and gave Rs 3,100 per quintal of paddy to farmers and also launched Subhadra Yojana under which about one crore women in the age group of 21 years to 60 years are availing Rs 10,000 per year. They will get Rs 50,000 as assistance in a period of five years.
The state for the first time hosted the All India DGP/IGP Conference in Odisha and the event was very successful. Odisha also for the first time witnessed the celebration of the Indian Navy Day in Puri coast. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and many other dignitaries visited the state after BJP took over reign of the state. The state during the year witnessed a new Chief Minister (Mohan Majhi) and a new Governor ( Kambhampati Hari Babu—yet to take oath of the office).
Four months after Shri Majhi took over, Odisha was hit by cyclone Dana and the entire government followed the state’s old policy of “zero casualty” and succeeded in its mission. The state also witnessed return of old issues like people dying (3 tribal women died in Kandhamal) by consuming gruel of mango kernel and allegation of BJP government allegedly attempting to allow Adani to start bauxite mining in Gandhamardan Hills, a sacred place in the Bargarh and Bolangir district.
The Majhi government had a tough time when Governor Raghubar Das’s son Lalit Kumar was accused of physically assaulting a government servant in Puri and going scot free. Incidentally, Shri Das in the last fortnight of the year, resigned as Odisha Governor. The BJP government was also accused of utterly failing to protect women in the state. The alleged torture of an army officer and sexual assault of his fiancé in a police station brought bad name for the entire police fraternity in the state.
The Mohan Government was also criticized over the alleged mismanagement of Rath Jatra in Puri. The idol of Lord Balabhadra falling on servitors while being taken out from the chariot during the ‘Pahandi’ ritual outside the Gundicha temple overshadowed the mega arrangements. However political observers feel that one thing is for sure that “It’s a People’s Government, where one can freely speak out and ventilate the issues to Chief Minister and he is available to people in general, which was totally lacking during Naveen Patnaik regime.