BJP of Orissa

BJP gains strength from
agitation and demostration
By Jual Oram

...continued from previous issue

Till 1989-90 the BJP had only a nominal presence in Orissa. It did not have even a table, one chair and a duree in the office. It had little resources at its disposal to run the State Party office.

The State BJP President Shri Biswabhusan Harichandan with many other leaders left the party and joined the Janta Dal then led by Shri Biju Patnaik. Following this a meeting of the State executive under the leadership of Shri Devendra Pradhan was held at Barhampur to take stock of the situation. The Bofors scam had already surfaced by then.

The Orissa Legislative Assembly election in 1990 was very important from the BJP's point of view. The party contested only 62 out of 147 seats and raised its vote share to 3.56 per cent although it could win only two assembly seats. The successful candidates were Shri Vikram Kesari Deo from Junagarh and Shri Jual Oram from Banei. Following this election Shri Biju Patnaik of Janata Dal became the Chief Minister for the second time after 26 years. Although Congress had continuously ruled the State consecutively for three decades, it could this time win only 10 seats and failed even get the status of a recognised Opposition.

The Rath Yatra of Shri Lal Krishna Advani passing through Orissa and his arrest in Bihar had a great impact in the State. The fall of VP Singh Government at the Centre also had an impact in the State. All these incidents had their reflection in elections to the State Assembly. Many people from different parties joined the BJP during this period. The son-in-law of Shri JB Patnaik Shri Samoranjan Pattnaik was one among them to join the party. He was also the Editor of the Daily Samvad.

In 1991 Lok Sabha elections BJP played a decisive role in the State's elections and the strength of Janata Dal was reduced from 16 to 6 out of a total of 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in Orissa. The fall of Janata Dal vote was the gain of BJP when it polled 9.50 percent of votes.

In 1992 in a by-election to the Orissa Legislative Assembly for Malkangiri following the death of sitting Janata Dal MLA, the young BJP Leader Sri Aurobindo Dhali was victorious in a prestigious triangular contest.

In November 1992 BJP National Executive again met at Bhubaneswar where all the senior leaders of the party including the Chief Ministers from four States under BJP rule, viz -Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh participated. In a massive public meeting in the Capital High School playground at Bhubaneswar, a large number of grass root karyakartas of the party thronged the venue generating a wave in favour of BJP.

In 1995 the numbers of Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs in Orissa Legislative Assembly went up to 9 with the election of Samir Dey (Cuttack City), Mahesh Narain (Talcher), Anant Narain Singh Deo (Sorada), Vikram Kesari Deo (Junagarh), Jual Oram (Banei), Pradipta Kumar Nayak (Bhawanipatna), Jogendra Nayak (Keonghar), Aurobindo Dhali (Malkangiri) and Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo (Patnagarh) to the assembly.

BJP managed to get more than one lakh votes in10 Lok Sabha constituencies of Orissa in the 1996 General Elections, though none of its candidates could win the election. In the by-election to the prestigious Bhubaneswar constituency of Orissa Legislative Assembly from where veteran Janata Dal leader Shri Biju Patnaik had been elected BJP candidate Shri Biswa Bhusan Harichandan won the election. This victory took the number of BJP MLA to two-digit figure of 10. Since then Bhubaneswar continues to be a BJP stronghold.
Then came the division of Janata Dal. The break away group formed a regional political party, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) headed by Shri Navin Patnaik. Both BJP and BJD contested the1998 Lok Sabha elections jointly and secured 7 and 9 seats respectively out of 9 and 12 (a total of 16 seats out of 21) seats contested. In the NDA cabinet led by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, senior BJP leader Sri Debendra Pradhan was included in the Union council of Ministers as Minister of Surface Transport.

Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA Government lost majority in Lok Sabha when Shri Girdhar Gamang voted immorally against the Government in spite of being a Chief Minister of Orissa. In the 1999 Elections to Lok Sabha that followed, BJP won all 9 seats it contested in Orissa. In 2000, BJP and BJD alliance secured 114 seats in a 147 house of Orissa Legislative Assembly and formed the government under the Chief Ministership of Shri Naveen Patnaik in which 9 BJP legislators became Ministers. BJP- BJD combine registered another impressive win in 2004 assembly elections when the people in Orissa returned to power Shri Navin Patnaik led Government. Since then the BJP-BJD Government is working zealously to turn a new leaf in the history of Orissa and leading it to new peaks of progress.

During this long journey of BJP in the State Shri Kushabhau Thakre, Shri Kailashpati Mishra, Shri Sundar Singh Bhandari, Shri Vishnukant Shastri, Shri Govindacharya, Shri Bansilal Soni, Shri Pyarelal Khandelwal and Shri Devdas Apte played a great role. So did the organisation general secretary Shri Devendra Mahapatra and Shri Prasann Mishra and the State Presidents- Shri Devendra Pradhan, Shri Bimladhar Kunwar, Shri Jual Oram and Shri Manmohan Samal.