Odisha is gearing up for Battle 2024, and five-time chief minister Naveen Patnaik looks set to fight for his record sixth term. Amid the political chatter, News18 caught up with the BJP’s state president, Manmohan Samal, who claimed that the state will throw up a surprise this year.
Edited Excerpts:
In many parts of the country, there appears to be a wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, in Odisha, that impact is not visible. Would you agree?
In Odisha, there is a massive wave in favour of the BJP and PM Modi. Odisha will throw up an unexpected result that no one has predicted.
What is the reason that you are so confident? Because it never happened in 2014 or 2019.
The year 2014 was what it was, and so was 2019. But 2024 is an exception. There will be a widespread change. People have already made up their minds. There is disenchantment among people with the local government. This is a corrupt government faced by anti-incumbency following a long period of rule and the destruction of democratic processes and the political system. Their ministers and MLAs don’t have any say. They don’t have compassion for the common people.
They failed to keep their commitment in 2009, 2014, and 2019. Our young people migrated, looking for work. The money that PM Modi sends from the Centre is not being disbursed. All sections are unhappy. There is no irrigation or cold storage facility for farmers; paddy is lying in the mandis. Farmers are not getting remunerative prices, and middlemen still rule. Farmers, students, youth, women, and the poor are all disenchanted with the government. That is an advantage for us.
The BJD government claims it has a very successful health programme for the poor. They have successfully executed big projects like the Shri Jagannatha Parikrama Project and the Suktel Dam Project. So why do you feel that people will not trust the BJD?
They themselves said they have spent Rs 4,200 crore on the Jagannath Temple project, yet they have conceded that apart from three bathrooms, they have done nothing. On the other hand, Rs 1,400 crore was spent on building the Ram Mandir.
A government that has been ruling for a long time and is free from instability has no outstanding performance to show. About 1.5 crore young people of Odisha leave the state to look for work elsewhere. Odisha has limitless potential for tourism, with beaches in Chandipur, Puri, Konark, and Gopalpur. Yet these are not being developed according to their potential. Similarly, take the phenomenon of turtles who come to the beach to lay eggs. Siberian birds visit the state; we have Chilika Lake. The government has no scheme to develop these fully.
Money has been allocated for an irrigation project. Yet, they have no will to execute the project. It is a government that has not only failed but is sunk in durneeti. Projects that should have been completed for Rs 10–15 crore are billed for Rs 50–60 crore. They are not utilising the money of the poor in a proper manner.
What will your strategy be in these elections? What are the issues that you will fight on?
The success of PM Modi, who has been at the helm for 10 years now, will be our mainstay. He has given Rs 18,83,000 crore to the state in the past nine years. The success of the Modi model is visible: 30 lakh houses, 36 lakh toilets, 12 lakh Ujjwala gas connections, crop insurance, 15 installments through the Krishi Samman programme, establishing IIMs in Odisha, a progressive mines policy that yielded Rs 50 crore for the Odisha government and which will go up to Rs 2 lakh crore in the next two years. Therefore, the success of the Modi government and the poor performance of the state government will be the biggest issues in these elections.
You are claiming that there will be a change in Odisha this year. Who will be your chief ministerial face?
Common people will become the chief minister, common people will fight the elections, common people will make us win, and we will win on behalf of the common people. We will fight under the leadership of the common people with the positive pitch of Modi-ji’s success.
Will all the sitting MPs in Odisha get tickets? Will they be repeated?
Our parliamentary party will decide.
Will you be contesting the forthcoming elections?
If our party asks me to, I will definitely fight.
Is the rising prominence of VK Pandian an election issue? You had targeted him earlier.
No, no. What we had said was to let him enter politics and fight elections. Why use the state government’s helicopters worth Rs 700 crore? Even today, he is misusing the state government’s money. That is not right. They should use their party’s funds for campaigning. No one is asking anyone not to contest elections. People are the best judges; people will decide. People will give an answer. And they have decided that they will bring in the BJP government this time.
There is a big buzz about Dharmendra Pradhan contesting elections from Sambalpur.
Please wait. Let the parliamentary party decide.
Recently, you sent Ashwini Vaishnaw to Parliament with the support of the BJD. Don’t you think that people can see that the BJP and BJD are close to each other? Will that not be harmful for you in these elections?
The BJP made Ashwini Vaishnaw a candidate. Why did BJD support him? You have to ask the BJD, not me. Did anyone ask them for support? If they gave their support, what were the reasons or conditions for their support? That answer can be given by BJD leaders and party supremo Naveen Babu. We don’t have the answer to that question. They should have put up a third candidate. They should have fought. Why did they not do that? What was their compulsion?
It will not be harmful for us. We gave a candidate, and we won. We had the numbers and candidate and we won.
How do you perceive the challenge from the Congress party?
There is no challenge from Congress. In six by-elections, Congress got just 2–3 per cent of the votes. In another two by-elections, it got a respectable vote share. In these elections, it will be limited to just 2–3 per cent of the vote share.
Are you saying that Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra will have no impact in Odisha?
We know what it means to be the party in the third position. We have suffered from it for 40 years. In Odisha, for the past 70 years, we were the “number three party”. In the country, we were the “number three party” for 40 years. Congress ruled the state for 45–50 years. They do not have the experience of being the “number three party”, having become one recently in 2019. It will be a straight fight between the BJP and BJD. No one votes for the “number three party”. People wait and watch, and just days ahead of the elections, that party becomes marginalised. People bet on the winning horse, not the losing one.
How would you rate Naveen Patnaik as a chief minister?
(Laughs) Mute, deaf… He is not in a condition to understand anything. He just reads out whatever is provided to him. There is no point in discussing him. When 1.5 crore people migrate looking for work, when there is no value addition to the products of the women’s self-help groups, when genuine farmers are deprived of the benefits of the Kisan Samman programme, when there is no cold storage facility for farmers, no agro-based industry, then how do you evaluate a chief minister? When does a state prosper? When the government demonstrates commitment, willpower, and icchashakti.
So, are you saying that the BJP will do well in the state as well as in LS?
We will form the government in Odisha. It will be a good and stable government. In the parliamentary elections, the results will be beyond anyone’s expectations. In the Vidhan Sabha, too, the results will amaze everyone.
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