Eye on tribal vote, BJP’s two-day State Executive in Baripada from today

Bhubaneswar/Baripada: Buoyed by the results of recently concluded panchayat election and after the two-day high octane National Executive meet at the State capital, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to draw a road map to consolidate tribal votes in Mayurbhanj district, at the two-day State Executive beginning today.

The saffron party’s decision to hold the meet in Mayurbhanj is being seen as an attempt to further strengthen the organisation at the grassroots level after it won 48 of the 56 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in the district in panchayat polls. Notably in 2012, the party had won only one seat, while the ruling BJD got 40, followed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) 10 and Congress 2. Three seats were won by independent candidates.

More so, since tribals constitute 22.85 per cent of the State's total population, the party is now eyeing on the tribal vote bank that would play a decisive factor in the 2019 general elections.

Besides, at the National Executive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked the party brass to value Jan, Van and Jal Dhan (people, forest and water) in his address to the national executive, a message aimed mainly at tribals.

Party sources said, the meet will be attended by Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram, party’s Odisha in-charge Arun Singh, National Joint General Secretary (Organization) Saudan Singh among others.