Bhubaneswar, The tectonic shift in Odisha’s political panorama in 2024 ended the practically 25-year rule of the thought-to-be invincible Naveen Patnaik authorities with the BJP coming to energy for the primary time within the state.
This was Patnaik’s first election defeat, which not solely lowered his BJD to 51 seats from the 113 it received in 2019 but additionally wiped it out of the Lok Sabha because it did not win any of the 21 constituencies within the simultaneous polls.
Patnaik, the five-time chief minister of the coastal state, misplaced within the Kantabanji seat to BJP’s Laxman Bag by over 16,000 votes, and managed to maintain the Hinjili meeting phase by a slender margin of round 4,000 votes.
The BJP received 78 seats within the 147-member meeting, whereas the Congress secured 14 seats. The CPI received one seat, whereas three Unbiased candidates additionally received. Although the BJP scripted historical past by carpet bombing the marketing campaign path with its prime management, together with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it secured a slightly lesser vote share of 40.07 per cent towards BJD’s 40.22 per cent.
Because the BJP stormed to energy driving on the narrative of ‘Odia Asmita’, portraying BJD as a celebration run by “outsider” VK Pandian, a Tamil IAS officer near Patnaik who left paperwork and joined politics solely to give up after the electoral debacle, it sprung a shock by giving the accountability of operating the federal government to a comparatively lesser-known face, Mohan Charan Majhi.
After taking on because the chief minister, Majhi, a tribal chief from Keonjhar, in his first cupboard assembly determined to reopen all 4 gates of the revered Jagannath temple in Puri as promised by the BJP forward of the elections. He additionally opened the doorways of the temple’s treasury or Ratna Bhandar after 46 years for stock and restore, moreover approving a corpus of ₹500 crore for the protection, safety and beautification of the temple.
The brand new authorities additionally permitted an MSP of ₹3,100 per quintal of paddy and launched monetary help scheme for girls, Subhadra Yojana, underneath which these within the age group of 21-60 might be given ₹50,000 over 5 years.
On the opposite facet, Patnaik took over because the chief of the opposition amid robust disgruntlement throughout the ranks of the BJD. The pre-poll pattern of BJD leaders becoming a member of the BJP continued with two Rajya Sabha MPs Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar switching over to the ruling camp and getting re-elected within the by-elections. It introduced down BJD’s Rajya Sabha tally to seven and bolstered the BJP’s energy within the Higher Home.
Amid criticism, Patnaik defended Pandian, recognising his “wonderful work” and placing the blame for the debacle to BJP’s “unfavourable marketing campaign”.
“I admit that the BJD couldn’t efficiently counter their lies, their unfavourable marketing campaign, and false narratives on social media. Now, persons are realising that they got here to energy by making false guarantees,” he stated on December 26, six months after remaining out of energy.
However the dwindling reputation, BJD was considerably profitable in cornering the federal government on a number of points, together with the protection of ladies after a military officer and his fiancée had been allegedly assaulted by police in custody.
The incident occurred on September 15 when the couple went to the Bharatpur police station in Bhubaneswar to lodge a criticism over a street rage incident. It was alleged that the military officer was overwhelmed up, and his fiancée was dragged right into a cell the place some male police personnel thrashed and molested her.
Amid uproar over the incident, the federal government suspended 5 police personnel, handed over the investigation to the Crime Department and constituted a judicial fee.
The state additionally received a brand new governor this 12 months in Kambhampati Hari Babu, who changed Raghubar Das. Das, the previous CM of Jharkhand, resigned after staying in workplace for barely 14 months amid months of public outcry over his son allegedly assaulting an on-duty authorities officer.
The incident occurred on the Raj Bhavan in Puri in July as the brand new BJP-led authorities hosted a mega Rath Yatra that noticed the participation of President Droupadi Murmu. It was alleged that the governor’s son Lalit Kumar and his 4 buddies assaulted Assistant Part Officer Baikuntha Pradhan.
The Rath Yatra in Puri additionally broke the custom this 12 months and was held over two days, however the idol of Lord Balabhadra falling on servitors whereas being taken out from the chariot in the course of the ‘Pahandi’ ritual exterior the Gundicha temple overshadowed the mega preparations. 9 individuals had been injured within the accident, which gave the opposition sufficient ammo to assault the federal government.
One other tropical cyclone, ‘Dana’, hit the state this 12 months, in November, however Majhi’s authorities was profitable in guaranteeing ‘zero casualty’ and minimal harm.
The state hosted the all-India DGP-IGP convention and the Indian Navy’s ‘Operational Demonstration’ on the event of Navy Day on the Puri seaside.
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