By Amarendra Mohanty
Yes, by seeing the current political situation in Centre, it reminded me the similar situation in Odisha decade ago when there was no formidable opposition against Naveen Babu’s BJD who is heading the Govt for the fourth consecutive time in Odisha. It seems the whole opposition is still recovering from trauma of Modi phobia. Though there are lots of issues ranging from boarder to farmer but we can’t see the opposition taking it aggressively. PM Modi is now enjoying the absolute power in Delhi like CM Naveen did in Odisha. NDA Govt. took the advantage of the circumstance implementing some hard decisions like Demonetization (DEMO) and GST. There are no doubts about the motive but it is true that implementations at ground were not satisfactory initially. Though the nation is going to be benefitted in long run due to GST but people may be impacted for short term.
The left parties are no more seen protesting aggressively like they used to do for each and every time there was increase of prices of commodities. The congress’s social media army is not matching that of BJP who are able to spread the welfare message of the Govt successfully to people at large. The main opposition congress seems to be lukewarm in raising and bringing the loopholes of the NDA. The think-tank of BJP sees a potential threat from regional satraps like Lalu, Nitish, Mamata, Mulayam, Maya and Naveen who can halt their home turf being safronised in 2019. BJP seems to work as per their own plan to minimize the threats from the powerful regional leaders which is understandable.
There is a tussle between father-son duo in UP, Maya is struggling to get her vote bank intact, Mahagathbandhan in Bihar is at risk due to CBI’s FIR against Tejashwi. Remember UP and Bihar are very important for BJP in 2019 where they won maximum number of seats in 2014. BJP is very aggressive against Mamata and Naveen in WB and Odisha respectively. Naveen’s image is the greatest asset for BJD, so any dent to his image would weaken BJD and his chances in next election. After the sad demise of Jaya, it is an impression that BJP is in total control over the different factions of AIADM in Tamil Nadu. Bapu’s exit from congress will boost BJP in Gujarat. All the major players TDP, YSR-Congress and TRS in undivided AP are friendly with BJP. By sensing the current scenario, there seems to be no threat for BJP from the regional satraps in future.
The weak opposition would be the blessing for BJP in 2019 at Delhi like it was helpful for Naveen in Odisha during his 17 years at office. So I can see the similar pattern in Delhi now as it was in Odisha decade back.
Amarendra Mohanty, IT Professional, Research Scholar & Social Worker. Twitter- @AmarendraM
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