Odisha results- Election 2019

In Odisha Naveen Patnaik won again. The man and his myth continues. The phenomenon of NaPa baffled even the seasoned psephologists who called everything else right. The 4th term Chief Minister just registered a well earned victory by getting a record 5th term - with his party BJD winning 107 seats, just 10 seats short of 117 seats it won 5 years ago. That means, a net loss of 2 seat in Assembly per every year since 2014.

Mathematically speaking, at this rate of loss of 2 seats per year it will take another 15 years for BJD to finally relinquish the power in the state. It will take a lot of patience and perseverance on the behalf of any party to replace him.

If one closely follows the results of both Assembly and Parliamentary Elections in Odisha, the opposition struggled in most of their seats, winning by razor thin margin - where as BJD won bulk of its seats by maintaining comfortable lead. It tells, Naveen Patnaik still holds the sway, his well cultivated and nurtured vote bank still intact.

In marketing jargon they say consumer is King, customer is God. Similarly, Naveen is the King and God for his customers - the people of Odisha. Apart from the ubiquitous concoction of disbursement of freebies through populist measures accompanied by his clean image and lack of viable alternatives, nobody has been able to neither dismantle, nor able to decipher his concocted recipe of success. But it works for him, though if Odisha would have been a country by itself it could have turned into another Venezuela by now - sans oil reserves.

Congress ended up in single digit in Odisha, and won a solitary seat in Parliament. For a party which ruled the majority of the 80s and 90s, it was a huge climb down. RIP Congress in Odisha. Though it still has a base, especially in the tribal belt of the state, the national party is on its path if extinction in the state - a poor shadow of what it once used to be.

The current affairs of my home state of Odisha may aptly be described by these few lines lifted from the Odia song LE NABEENA from 1981. (Naveena here depicted the typical down to earth Odia guy, no relationship to Naveen Patnaik who was no where in the political picture of Odisha at that time).

LE NABEENA TIKE PACHHAKU ANA,
HATHE BAADI DHARI THIA BAPUJI NANA,
BAPUJI BUDHA RA AAKHI RE LUHA,
TA RAMA RAIJE AAJI YAMA RA BHAYA

( O' Nabeena, take a peek behind.
Stick in hand Old man Bapuji is standing,
The old man's eyes are filled with tears,
Yama, the God of death has filled
His Dream Land with fear).

The legendary Biju Patnaik wanted to take Odisha to the next level. His son Naveen Patnaik brought himself to the level of Odias. This Election results yet reinforced that Naveena and Odias are made for each other. Having said that, hoping for the best I hope he takes the advantage of his mandate and a healthy relationship with the center to attract investments to Odisha. 

He can still be the harbinger of the changes in a state richly endowed with natural resources and filled with opportunities by arresting the natural outflow of its locals as labourers and security guards to outside states. It doesn't augur well for the self esteem of the state to perpetually run to Center with begging bowl.

The man has the mandate and a pliable Bureaucracy behind him to bring in these much needed changes to take Odisha to the next level. Though has two decades of his tenure has been a saga of missed opportunities, there is still time for catch up. But at this stage your guess of whether he got the vision and zeal to accomplish the goal is as good as mine. Please make 5th time as the charm.Good luck to you.