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Following NDA’s nomination of Draupadi Murmu as the Presidential candidate, both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have found themselves vying for the credit.
While it is being discussed in the political corridors that the saffron party has played a masterstroke by nominating a tribal woman from a nondescript area in Odisha ahead of the big game in 2024, the party too feels that it will definitely make a huge difference.
On the other hand, in order to upset the BJP’s apple cart and keep its tribal vote base intact, the conch party has already started working on its strategy.
As a part of its strategy, immediately after the announcement of the name of Presidential candidate by the NDA, Naveen took to his Twitter handle to say the PM had earlier discussed with him about the candidature of Draupadi Murmu.
Subsequently, BJD ministers and MLAs in their tweets referred Murmu as Odisha’s pride and welcomed her.
Most importantly, before the saffron party could ask for the support of all the parties, Naveen appealed to all MLAs, cutting across party lines, to extend unanimous support to elect the daughter of Odisha to the country’s highest office.
The conch party’s strategies are being looked upon as its game plan to put a spoke in the BJP’s wheel.
At the same time, it is being discussed in the political circles that by praising Murmu as ‘Daughter of Odisha’ and ‘Pride of Odisha’, the BJD is trying its level best to make it appear that it has s soft corner for tribals.
“He (Naveen) is neither in the BJP nor in the NDA. So he hasn’t any role in selection of Presidential candidate. Besides this, on one day he had said he had no discussion with the PM regarding the Presidential candidate. Yesterday, he said he had discussed with the PM regarding the topic. This suggests his penchant for taking credit in everything,” said senior BJP leader Manmohan Samal.
The Congress alleged a kind of race to bag the credit of Murmu’s candidature has already begun.
“The present episode is centered on both the BJP and BJD trying to take the credit of Murmu’s nomination. The BJD is trying to dominate over the BJP. A kind of fear of losing the tribal voter base is also gripping them (the BJD),” observed Congress MLA Md Moquim.
On the other hand, the BJD termed the allegations of hankering after credit as baseless. “He (Naveen) has been given credit for effective management of cyclones and pandemic. We always believe in work.”
According to political analysts, the BJD is creating such an atmosphere with a view to keeping its tribal vote base intact.
“Since the NDA’s Presidential candidate is a woman and a tribal face, the BJD fears it may lose its tribal vote base. In order to keep the vote bank intact, the party is now politically marketing it that it has full support for Murmu,” said senior journalist Prasanna Mohanty.
It is to be seen how the present equation between the BJP and BJD will pan out after the Presidential election.
