Odisha example before Andhra

"Alliance talks are based on statesmanship," observed Biju Janata Dal (BJD) heir apparent and former bureaucrat V K Pandian, in an interview just before the arrangement between the BJD and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) collapsed and died ahead of the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha (being held simultaneously on May 13).

- ADITI PHADNIS

Statesmanship would not appear to be the casualty here: Since then, neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has criticised each other in public meetings.

Mr Modi's target has been the Congress while Mr Patnaik has described his work in the state while asking people to vote the BJD.

The campaign of the state unit of the BJP is another matter altogether.

It has launched a bitter attack on Mr Pandian, calling him the "face of corruption". So, while the two top leaders are keeping the door half open and half closed, the BJD -the version headed by Mr Pandian, not Mr Patnaik - is in the BJD win by nearly 50,000 BJP's cross-hairs.

Confusing? Not for voters in Odisha, who have shown the most sophisticated sense of discrimination while voting in Assembly and Lok Sabha polls. Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, the BJD had won 20 and the BJP took one. In 2019, the BJD got 12 seats while the BJP got nine.

But in 2019, the BJP was unable to transfer this advantage to Assembly seats: The BJD won 112 of the 147 seats. The BJP managed only 23. While the BJD registered a 12 per cent vote share lead against its closest rival, the BJP reaffirmed its position as the growing alternative party in the coastal parts of the state.