BJP-BJD ties break down, NDA shaken

BHUBANESWAR: In what is a major setback to the NDA campaign, the BJP-BJD ties broke down on Saturday night with Orissa chief minister Naveen
Patnaik announcing that he would go to polls on his own and his 11-year understanding with the saffron camp was off. ( Watch )

The talks between Patnaik and BJP ended on an abrupt note when the BJD leader made a "humiliating" offer of just about half a dozen Lok Sabha seats of the 21 seats in Orissa. While BJP kept mum after the talks ended, the party's senior leadership will take stock of the situation in Delhi on Sunday.

It is clear that Patnaik was not really keen to continue his alliance with BJP as he set out terms that the safrron party, even if its stretched itself, would not have been able to agree to. The BJD boss appears to be convinced that he is better placed to win the Lok Sabha and assembly elections without the BJP.

"We were stressing on the winnability factor but this did not work out. It is now clear that we will face the elections on our own," said Patnaik after the talks failed.

The BJP has been taken off guard despite the evidence on the ground suggesting that the party has been steadily in decline. Even in western Orissa's tribal belt, BJD has begun to win more seats in the local body elections. BJP has missed the point that its appeal has become increasingly restricted to only its core cadres and incidents like Kandhamal have only created a surge amongst the faithful.

The view of BJP leaders is that Patnaik has taken a calculated decision that may enhance his status as a regional leader but could still be open to a post-election deal with NDA if the numbers work out. The BJD could also go with a "third front" formation if such a situation arose. Yet, the ruthless streak that Patnaik has dispalyed surprised BJP even though he has shown it in dealing with inconvenient elements in his own party.

It is felt that BJD's bold strike is also based on its assessment that the party was gaining not just at the expense of BJP but also eating into Congress support. Both Congress and BJP suffer the drag of uninspiring leadership and this has accrued to the benefit of the BJD over the years.

Patnaik kept the BJP on tenterhooks through the day. As Naveen left for Ganjam to campaign, the BJP core group remained in closed door meetings at the party office. The core group comprised party's state president Suresh Pujari, Biswabhusan Harichandan, Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram, Manmohan Samal, Kharabela Swain, Prasanna Mishra, Panchanan Rout, and BJP all-India joint general secretary in charge of Orissa, V Satish.

The meeting was convened in the backdrop of Friday night's one-on-one talk Naveen Patnaik had with BJP emissary from New Delhi Chandan Mitra on the contentious seat sharing issue for the ensuing assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Mitra on Friday had met Naveen after getting briefs from the state BJP leadership. That the meeting yielded little result was evident from the statement he made after emerging out of Naveen Niwas. "Details of the meeting cannot be discussed before the media," he remarked. He also said that both sides were examining the ground reality.

Sources said Mitra discussed with the core group details of his talks with Patnaik and sought the state leadership's views on whether or not to agree with the BJD formula. The BJD was rigid on dismantling the 84:63 and 12:9 ratio for the assembly and Lok Sabha seats. respectively, and wanted to contest more seats. It also wanted to reserve the right of choosing the seats for BJP.

This was clearly not acceptable. The BJP meeting also discussed the possibility of BJD fielding rebels to undercut the BJP's position whether there was an alliance or not.