BHUBANESWAR, 23 AUG

With the battle lines clearly drawn for the 9 September vice-presidential elections, Odisha’s opposition party, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), is yet to reveal its stand.

NDA pick CP Radhakrishnan is pitted against opposition candidate B Sudarshan Reddy in the polls.

Though BJD’s seven MPs may not be a deciding factor in the elections, BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s stand would be interesting for the national politics as well as for Odisha, where the party has been opposing the 14-month-old maiden government of the BJP.

The BJD all along backed NDA candidates when it was in power in Odisha, but Patnaik’s party is now in the opposition.

Patnaik received phone calls from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday. They enquired about the health condition of the former chief minister, who was hospitalised for dehydration.

Senior BJD leader and Opposition chief whip in the Assembly, Pramila Mallik, said, “Our party president Naveen Patnaik will take the final decision on the BJD’s stand in the vice-presidential elections at the right time. He has all along taken decisions keeping in view the interest of the state and the country.”

Patnaik supported NDA candidates Droupadi Murmu in the Presidential elections and Jagdeep Dhankar in the vice-president polls, both in 2022.

Apart, the BJD backed the Narendra Modi government in several contentious issues between 2014 and 2024, including the demonetisation and the abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

The regional party supported BJP candidate Ashwini Vaishnaw twice to get elected to the Rajya Sabha.

All such generous political support was given by the BJD to its rival party when the regional outfit was ruling Odisha, and Patnaik appeared invincible in the state politics.

The situations have, however, changed, and Odisha’s five-time chief minister, Naveen Patnaik from 2000 to 2024, is now the Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly.

The state’s political circle is curious to know what his stand would be now.

“The BJD has been humiliated in the hands of the BJP in the 2024 elections; it lost power in the state and even failed to open an account in the Lok Sabha elections. Now, it should realise its position and support the INDIA candidate instead,” said senior Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati.

BJD leader and former MP Mahesh Sahoo said that according to him, the regional party would oppose the NDA candidate in the vice-presidential election.

“We had supported the NDA’s Presidential candidate as Murmu was a daughter of Odisha. The situation is entirely different now, and we should oppose the NDA candidate,” Sahoo said.

The party has changed its stand so far post 2024 elections and is projecting itself as a “vibrant and strong” opposition in the Upper House of Parliament and also in the state assembly.

Another senior BJD leader, on condition of anonymity, said, “We should not forget how the BJP reduced the BJD’s number of MPs in the Rajya Sabha in a planned manner. The BJD had nine MPs in the Rajya Sabha before the 2024 elections; it has come down to seven after Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar were wooed and they resigned from the Upper House and switched sides to the BJP last year”.

The BJD leadership, insiders said, is in a fix, keeping in view the intra-party dissension following a change in the party’s stand on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Rajya Sabha earlier this year.

Though the party initially decided to oppose the Bill, at the last moment, the MPs were allowed to exercise their franchise according to conscience, which resulted in a division of votes. Of the seven MPs, five supported the Bill, one voted against it, while another abstained voting giving a wrong signal.

Many leaders in the party said the BJD’s decision on the vice-presidential elections can have an impact on the upcoming students’ union polls in colleges and panchayat and municipal elections.

Apart, BJD is also facing challenges from the Congress, which has all along been trying to expose its alleged “secret nexus” with the BJP. The Congress claims to be the real opposition party in Odisha and not the BJD.