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A green thumbs up again for the ruling BJD. After a brute win in the recently held Panchayat polls, the ruling party has displayed its sheer dominance in the urban pollscape. The BJD poll march drops a sort of bombshell for the Opposition in Odisha.
In the results declared today for the elections to 108 Urban Local Bodies (ULB) and over 1899 councillors/corporators held on March 24, the ruling BJD has not only made a clean sweep of the three mayoral posts but has also won 70 percent of the civic chairman posts. A high of over 68 percent councillor/corporator winners is also ruling party members.
With such a towering victory over the Opposition, CM Naveen Patnaik-led BJD has seemingly checkmated the Opposition moves to dream a coup in the 2024 general elections.
How A Bombshell?
The trend emerging from the rural and urban polls clearly puts CM Naveen Patnaik in the driver's seat for the 2024 General elections. Because the wins and the vote share of BJD indicate the tectonic shift in State politics.
The current trend looks so overwhelming that it seems in 2024, with the present factors remaining constant during the 2024 general elections, the Opposition may get once a lifetime shock in the upcoming general elections. If the present trend is any indicator, the chances of the Opposition getting knocked down to a single-digit seems very much real.
Opposition In Single Digit?
A look at the results of both the Panchayat and Urban body elections, which represent the electoral demography of the State, shows the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik led ruling party has won 90 percent of Zilla Parishads in the recently concluded rural elections and the party has also won nearly 70 percent seats in the urban polls. Moreover, the BJD's margin of victory has also been quite convincing.
Unless some drastic political events rock the State because politics is always dynamic, as per the wins in Panchayat and ULBs, the count of Opposition legislators in Odisha may shrink to around 10.
Given that the BJD is able to hold its forte and is seen annexing the Opposition strongholds, post the conversion of seats won by BJD in the urban and rural polls, the data reveals that while BJP seats in 2024 may get reduced to around 4-6 from 22 in 2019, the Congress seems to be in a position to grab only a couple of seats (2-3).
As a consequence, it seems CM Naveen Patnaik is now sitting pretty in around 135-137 Assembly Constituencies when the 2024 General Elections is just 24-months away.
