The BJP president J P Nadda will address a public meeting at Janata Maidan while the BJD president and chief minister is scheduled to interact with representatives of students, youth, women, farmers and other wings of the party at Baramunda ground.
The Congress has also planned a rally of party workers and leaders at Khurda, 20 km from Bhubaneswar.
In fact, all eyes are on the BJP president Mr Nadda’s address to party workers who appear to be quite confused with the stand of the central leaders vis-à-vis the ruling BJD.
Though the state BJP leaders always consider the BJD as their chief adversary, the central leaders of the party have often fostered a liberal approach towards the regional outfit. The saffron party which in the past embarrassed the BJD by raising mining and chit fund scams; have shelved the two major issues since long. Add to this, the Central BJP leaders’ “excessive reliance” on the BJD, especially after 2029 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, to get the latter’s support for passing crucial bills in Rajya Sabha and getting its own nominees elected for high constitutional positions such as President and Vice President has robbed the party of its firepower.
The confusing stand of the saffron party has cost the party dearly in different polls held after 2019. It has lost six assembly by-polls and fared very badly as it got only 42 of 854 Zilla Parishad seats in state rural polls. In urban local body polls, it could not do better – it got a majority in just 16 of the 108 local bodies with a vote share of 27 per cent, far below the BJD’s 50 per cent.
The Congress which has got only 9 legislators in the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly also struggles to regain its lost glory. In rural polls, it got 37 ZP posts while it managed to form its councils in only 6 urban local bodies (ULBs).
According to analysts, Mr Nadda’s speech is expected to clear the air about the much talked about “cozy relationship” between the BJP and BJD.
“The BJP leaders in Odisha want regime change in the state. On the contrary, the central leaders of the party maintain an ambiguous stand which has resulted in erosion of the party's support base. As the state is likely to go for early assembly polls in 2023, one year before the actual year of elections, the BJP national president JP Nadda needs to clear his party’s stand with regard to his party’s Odisha plan,” said Prasanna Mohanty, a political analyst.
