Bhubaneswar, May 29: Political imperatives, it seems, have obliged the BJD to tone down its resistance to the controversial Polavaram project across the border in Andhra Pradesh.

Opposition to the multi-purpose dam over the Godavari river in the Seemandhra region — that threatens to inundate a large chunk of land in Odisha’s Malkangiri district — was one of the key planks on which the BJD built its campaign against the Congress-led UPA. The party had also reacted angrily when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the course of his election campaign in Seemandhra, had promised steps to accelerate the project if the BJP was voted to power.

However, the muted response of the BJD to the Modi government’s move to merge some villages and mandals of Telangana with Seemandhra to expedite work on Polavaram indicates a change in the regional party’s stand on the issue. There has hardly been any reaction in the BJD to the Centre’s ordinance for the merger of Telangana villages with Seemandhra to smoothen the process of land acquisition for the big-ticket irrigation and power project over the Godavari. The ordinance today received the President’s assent.

The contrast in the BJD’s pre and post-election response to the Polavaram issue is revealing. The party, which used to hit the streets at the slightest opportunity over Polavaram before the elections, whipping up popular passions across the state, has hardly reacted this time. While chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who left for a seven-day visit to Delhi today, did not utter a word on the issue, his confidant and BJD vice-president Kalpataru Das was also reluctant to speak. “Give me some time,” he said.

Yet another BJD leader, who was not willing to be quoted, admitted that the party would find it difficult to sustain its aggressive stand on Polavaram in the changed political scenario with a BJP-led government assuming power at the Centre.

The BJD sources were not even certain about the possibility of Naveen raising the Polavaram issue during his interaction with the central leaders in Delhi. He is said to have sought appointments with Modi and some of his cabinet colleagues.

Water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, however, said that the government would move the Supreme Court against the proposed Polavaram Project Authority.