Posters in Bhubaneswar demanding special status. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar: As regional sentiments run high on Odisha’s demand for a special category state status, the Biju Janata Dal has sought to strike the right note with a racy track.

A part of its video campaign, the track is being played on various local television channels.

Set to fast music, the number that appeals to Odia pride and recalls the legacy of Biju Patnaik, the father of the incumbent chief minister, is also on the radio. The video highlights file visuals of Biju Patnaik, Naveen Patnaik and many of the current BJD leaders including filmstar-turned-politician Sidhant Mohapatra. Other BJD leaders featured in the video are Prasanna Acharya, Pramila Mallick, Kalikesh Singh Deo, A.U. Singh Deo, Debi Mishra and Sanjay Das Burma.

It also features collages of mass rallies.

In the backdrop runs the track Biju babu dakileni….Jago re, a peppy number that has been composed as well as penned by Odia boy Bapu Goswami in his Delhi-based studio. Young singer Sangram has lent his voice to the pulsating song with beats that reminds of Rahman’s Oscar winning and foot tapping Jai Ho.

“We actually tried to keep the tempo high and make it catchy like Jai Ho because it had to have an element of motivation,” said Goswami. With lines such as “Kotie Pran gotie katha, karuchhi kendra pakshapatita, Jabab deba, uttar magiba, au na sahiba patiki matha (Crores of people are talking about Centre’s prejudice, we won’t take it lying down anymore), the song urges people to join hands with the BJD in demanding special category status.

While the television campaign began on May 21, radio started playing the song from May 25. Though not willing to be quoted, BJD leaders hope that the song will set their campaign on the fast track.

The party, which is at present engaged in collecting one crore signatures in favour of its demand, also has an eye on the elections to be held next year. If it succeeds in sustaining the tempo of its anti-Centre campaign, it can reap rich dividends at the hustings in 2014, said sources.

The BJD government has been at loggerheads with the Centre over the special-category status demand for a long time with chief minister Naveen Patnaik having written a letter to the Prime Minister in 2011 pleading Odisha’s case. The issue blew up into a controversy when Manmohan Singh regime recently dropped subtle hints about according this status to Bihar whose chief minister dangled the carrot of support before the UPA.

The BJD went all guns blazing against the Centre when Planning Commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia recently wrote to the chief minister making it clear that Odisha’s claim for special status could not be entertained as the state did not fit the parameters set out for the purpose.

Now, it’s an all out war between the state and Centre.