By Amarendra Mohanty
Naba Kishore Das, a two-time legislator and an influential leader of Jharsuguda would certainly be a prize catch for BJD which fights 19 years of anti-incumbency. He being the resourceful and organizational skilled person can be a trump card for the party in Western Odisha where both BJP and Congress have an eye to improve their tally in 2019.
But for now, it seems regional party BJD has a better strategy than the National parties INC and BJP in the region. BJD has turned the tide in its favor by attracting the sitting lawmakers into its fold. It may dampen BJP’s ambitious Mission 120+ & ‘Congress Uthiba, Odisha Hasiba’ campaign of the grand old party in the upcoming election.
Ironically, this news broke just a day after PM Modi’s visit to the Western region and few days before Congress Supremo Rahul Gandhi’s planned visit to Odisha. Naba joining BJD just before Rahul’s visit to Odisha would be a huge setback for Congress and certainly a victory for the spin doctors of BJD.
While BJP leaders have great hope of creating Modi magic in the state by PM Modi’s marathon visit; 3 times within 3 weeks to Coastal, Northern and Western part of Odisha.
Congress is on cloud 9 after wresting three big sates in Hindi Heartlands and most importantly the Chhattisgarh, neighboring state of Odisha. Congress is hopeful of replicating the success in Odisha by invoking the farmer issue, promising farm loan waivers and increasing the MSP to the farmers.
Naveen who believes in his equidistance theory has plans to combat both INC and BJP in all the regions of Odisha. It won’t be surprised if more and more leaders from opposition camps will join BJD in the coming days.
It’s interesting to see if NaPa’s electoral success will be decoded by the opposition in 2019.
Amarendra Mohanty, IT Professional, Research Scholar & Social Worker. Twitter- @AmarendraM
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