A Repeat Of Rural Polls In The Urban Bodies May Not Be The Same, BJD Must Cease To Be Complacent
By D N Singh
The Panchayat polls results have thrown up a shock for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, which may render them nerves for quite some time.
It was a mandate that obviously it would have humbled the winning party, the Biju Janata Dal, with a number of 766 Zilla Parishad Zones. A massive catapulting of the party’s credibility and a near practical steamrolling of the opponent duo, now left sulking in their war rooms.
Before the impulses of the defeat subside, the urban poll’s footfalls are already audible. In such a situation where the magnitude of the defeat is so enormous, the situation can hardly permit a soul-searching.
So, now the last option left for the BJP and the Congress, who stood at 2nd & 3rd positions respectively, the energy and political coherence for a minimum respectable numbers as a face saving score.
The only difference is that, then it was the rural and semi-urban mass and in the upcoming urban polls, it is the cities and big towns where the voter is aware of the political chemistry better.
However, chatters in the political grapevines does not sound much different than it was during the pre-rural polling. As for now, the electoral matrix appear obviously tilted a bit in the favour of the Biju Janata Dal and the latter too has to work extra hours to woo the urban psyche in its favour. Else it might be a tight-rope walk in some places.
Urban polling is different ball game and some poll analysts hold the view that, the situation here in the urban bodies may be bit removed from what it was in the rural. Both, the voter psyche and the issues as well remain different.
Moreover, the Congress has some pocket burrows in some urban areas, at least a minimum of 20 to 25 %. But the present moribund state that the Congress is in, it may depend on the party’s penetration into the areas where the BJD & the BJP are likely to cause some damage.
Whereas, in 2019 the BJP won the urban Assembly seats in Malkangiri, Parlakhemudi, Bhawanipatna, Umerkote and nine other places whereas the Congress won from Jeypore, Mohana, Jatni, Barabati-Cuttack and four other seats.
It will remain to be seen whether the BJD can wrest back some.
