Considering the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the state, can you tell us are you really satisfied with the panchayat poll results. The BJD is still ahead of the BJP…
In politics, one cannot always go by simple arithmetic. One plus one will not make exactly two. Here, the results will be something different. You have to understand the chemistry.
We were the number three party in the state. Our objective was to emerge stronger. We chalked out a plan and proceeded accordingly. We have achieved that.
In politics, the objective is to change the government and take the responsibility of governance. Yes, I do admit that we have to grow even stronger. To become number one, we have to reach second place and then we can upstage the one at the top. To be number one, we have to be stronger. We have to consolidate our position in all the 36,000 booths in the state. Accordingly, we are going ahead with our plan.
You have been relegated to third place when it comes to panchayat samitis, the core of the three-tier panchayati raj system…
Panchayat elections are not fought on party symbols. The BJD is floating such theories to downplay its defeat. Our party has emerged as an alternative to the BJD at the panchayat level.
If the election results are taken into consideration, the BJP won the elections where the party had contested in the Assembly polls in 2000 and 2004. You have only consolidated your position there…
Perhaps you have not read the statistics correctly. The Congress and the BJD’s vote share has decreased over the years. There was a public anger against the ruling party. We have secured around 3.3 lakh votes in Jajpur, one of our weakest bases. We have made inroads into the Aska Lok Sabha constituency that includes the Assembly constituency of the chief minister. The party has done well all over the state and in all booths. It is not the right analysis to say that the party has only won in a few isolated pockets.
But if the results of the panchayat polls are taken into consideration, the BJP will not win more than 50 Assembly seats out of a total 147…
We have another two years to go…
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik visited strife-torn Bhadrak town and without naming the BJP, said it was the divisive forces that were behind communal tension in the town. On the other hand, the Congress and other parties have directly pointed fingers at the BJP?
It was local BJD MP (Arjun Sethi) who had raised a finger at the role of the local police. One should ask who encouraged the divisive forces? Why did Naveen babu not immediately shift the superintendent of police and allow him to work for seven days? Which party MLA’s son had organised a motorcycle rally when Section 144 (prohibitory order) was in force and there was a curfew-like situation following the tension? The BJD’s Arjun Sethi, who has been in electoral politics a long time, has raised this issue. At this time, Naveen babu is talking of divisive forces. We should also ask who all have been arrested.
By visiting Bhadrak, Naveen babu has sent across a message of being the champion of secularism. He had even snapped ties with the BJP in 2009 following the 2008 Kandhamal riots…
What secularism you are talking about? It has only been confined to speeches. Who had prevented him from transferring the superintendent of police? Naveen babu could have done it from Delhi itself. We were with him for nine years. We were with him when Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burnt alive.
The BJP has put up a number of hoardings across the state mentioning its contribution to Odisha and about a number of schemes. But the major schemes that are being projected by you are either the cheap rice scheme or Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana…
We have never said others have not made any contribution. We never dismiss their contributions in nation building. The Prime Minister has said it more than 50 times even in Parliament. You should not single out schemes such as the rice scheme or the MNREGA. Earlier, the state government took credit for the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme. What we have done is to ensure that poor people get the benefit.
You are welcoming leaders from other parties to the BJP fold. Yours is supposed to be a party with a difference. Don’t you think that it will dilute the party’s core value?
Those who are joining the party believe in the BJP’s ideology. They repose their faith in the Prime Minister and our president Amit Shah’s leadership. In social life, ideals change over time. The people who are coming to the party first change themselves before joining us. The party is not going to them, they are coming to us after being attracted by its ideology.
Aren’t they opportunists?
That’s a point of debate. Good people are uniting under the leadership of Modi ji…
Your party’s stand remains ambivalent on various issues such as Mahanadi water sharing, coal royalty to the state and even tax sharing of the IOCL project. Former Union minister Srikant Jena had raised these issues…
Had our stand been ambivalent on these issues, we could not have won the panchayat polls in Sambalpur, Sonepur and Badamba Narasingpur. There will be no stoppage of water from the Mahanadi to the state. As long as Modi ji is at the helm of affairs, Odisha’s interests will be protected. We will not compromise on that and this is our responsibility. Srikant babu had raised the issue of reverse bidding. What had his government done? They had handed over mines to people at throwaway prices. Instead, we have auctioned the mines. Now, the question is whether it should have fetched more price or not. On the IOCL issue, we have made it clear that we are ready for a discussion.
But Jena said though the central government was collecting Rs 8,000 crore as cess from coal, it was spending this money not in Odisha, but for the development of other states such as Maharasthtra and Rajasthan.
He is a frustrated man. Even his party is not giving him importance anymore. I don’t want to get into a debate with him.
The party’s national executive meeting is going to be held in Bhubaneswar after 20 years. It has been discussed that the party would prepare its vision document for 2019 from this meet.
The Prime Minister has categorically said there was a need to give a boost to the development of east India. In order to achieve that goal, we have to strengthen our base here. The party has won the election with a thumping majority in Uttar Pradesh. Now, we have to consolidate our position in places where the party’s base is weak. In order to do that we needed to hold discussions and the party decided to organise its executive meeting here.
Picture by Ashwinee Pati
