While all the attention was focused on the bonhomie between Union Home minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at the ‘official’ meeting at Lok Seva Bhavan on Saturday, the real ‘action’ took place far away from public glare. In the morning, the Chief Minister’s Man Friday VK Pandian met the Home minister at the swanky hotel where he stayed. Later in the day, Shah and Naveen were closeted in a one-one-one meeting at the Lok Seva Bhavan after the Home minister’s official engagements were over.
Significantly, top BJP leaders from the state, who were having a discussion with the Home minister over a breakfast meeting, discreetly left the place as soon as Pandian arrived so that the two could have a free and frank chat without being constrained by the presence of ‘others’! Significantly again, the Chief Minister’s trusted private secretary was present when the former had his ‘one-on-one’ with Shah. While these two all-important meetings took place away from the prying TV cameras, what the world saw was the benignly smiling visage of the 5T secretary seated right behind the Chief Minister at the ceremony to launch various National Highway projects.
If state BJP leaders were wondering what happened to the letter they had written to the Union Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) well over a month ago drawing its attention to the alleged violation of All India Services Conduct Rules by Pandian and calling for action against him, they must have got the answers by Saturday afternoon. They would have understood that the DoPT had already taken whatever ‘action’ it proposed to take by forwarding the letter, written by Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi and BJP state unit president Manmohan Samal, to the Odisha chief secretary and that no further action was to be expected. That the letter the two wrote was not worth the paper it was written on.
The state unit of the BJP has faced a serious crisis of credibility as the supposedly ‘principal’ opposition party at least since after the 2019 elections as the party’s Big Two have established an excellent relationship with BJD supremo. It is a mutually rewarding arrangement that has ensured that Naveen rules Odisha untrammeled by Central agencies while the BJP continues to get the unstinted support of the BJD in Parliament on virtually every Bill. It would be no exaggeration to say the BJD is the Modi government’s most trusted ally, even more loyal than some of the constituents of the NDA. The support of the BJD is particularly crucial in the Rajya Sabha where the party has nine MPs and the NDA doesn’t have a majority.
Despite the bonhomie between the top leaders of the two ‘rival’ parties, it is to the credit of the state BJP that it had put up a spirited attack on the Naveen Patnaik government on various issues, including the ‘Super Chief Minister’ status allegedly enjoyed by Pandian. But after the royal snub on Saturday, they now don’t have a place to hide. Amit Shah’s visit in general and the importance with which he treated Pandian was the clearest possible indication to them that the party’s central leadership has no intention of taking on Naveen Patnaik on his home turf. It would rather carry on with the mutually beneficial relationship with Naveen into the next Lok Sabha and state Assembly. By literally asking the state unit to fight its own battle without bothering about what is happening at the Central level. Shah dropped enough hints that they shouldn’t expect the Modi-Shah combine to burn their bridges with Naveen by using the kind of invectives they used in the run up to the 2019 polls. Shah, it may be remembered, had called the Naveen Patnaik government a ‘burnt transformer’ that deserved to be ‘thrown into the Bay of Bengal’. Shah’s visit leaves no doubt whatsoever that attacks of that kind will be conspicuously missing this time. At best, it would be a ‘friendly fight’ between the two estranged partners. At worst, it would be a tacit understanding that ensures the BJD gets a thumping majority in the Assembly while the BJP walks away with a sizeable number of Lok Sabha seats.
In short, the BJP has given a walkover to the BJD several months before the election. With the BJD and BJP on the same side of the political divide, almost the entire opposition space in state politics now lies vacant. But alas! Given the moribund state its party organization is in, the Congress doesn’t have a hope in hell to occupy that space, at least not in the 2024 elections.
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)