Know about BJP's strong stand regarding Odisha?
Perhaps there was a time when congress was in power in Odisha. With the rise of naveen patnaik, the condition of congress became pathetic in the last two and a half decades. In May 2014, the nda government was formed at the center under the leadership of prime minister Narendra Modi. Since then, odisha has also been included among the priority states of the top leadership of BJP. This was the period when the political ground of congress started shrinking rapidly in odisha and bjp started emerging as an alternative there as the opposition.
Meanwhile the result of this was that in 2019, bjp succeeded in becoming the main opposition party in odisha by winning 23 assembly seats. Along with this, this year bjp was also successful in winning 8 out of 21 lok sabha seats of Odisha. congress kept shrinking and bjp became the biggest threat to naveen patnaik in Odisha.
Till now bjp has not been able to give a significant challenge to naveen patnaik in the assembly elections, but due to BJP's excellent performance in the last lok sabha elections, Biju Janata Dal had to suffer a lot of loss. This time bjp has full hope that it will reach power in the state. This time two things are important in favor of BJP. naveen patnaik has been the chief minister of odisha continuously for almost 24 years. His party has been in power for the last five terms. bjp can get the benefit of anti-incumbency wave.
Moreover apart from this, bjp hopes that like other states of North India, it will get the benefit of the political environment created after the inauguration of ram temple in Odisha. For the last several years, bjp and its affiliated organizations have been trying to polarize votes in odisha in the name of Hindu versus other religions, so that the political reign of naveen patnaik ends. However, despite all efforts, this has not been found in the odisha assembly elections. Now after the inauguration of ram temple, many bjp leaders in odisha are also hoping that this time the votes may be polarized on the basis of religion.