TNI Bureau: Majority of people as well as political pundits had predicted that Naveen Patnaik’s BJD will support the NDA candidate in the 2025 Vice Presidential Poll, which was necessitated due to the “mysterious exit” of Jagdeep Dhankhar. Some hoped that BJD will support the INDI Alliance Candidate to fight against BJP. But, Naveen ended all speculations, with the announcement that his party would abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential poll.
Many in the BJD, having ideological differences with the BJP and RSS, feel devastated today. They expected their party to go aggressive against BJP. But, did not they miscalculate the readings? Why should BJD support a Candidate backed by Congress and on what basis? BJD is not a party based on any ideology. Rather, it was formed with the support of BJP and they shared power for 9 long years.
Traditionally, Janata Parivar and BJD fought against the Congress at the grassroots level. So, one can’t see any reason why Naveen Patnaik would support the Congress-backed Candidate. With this move, Naveen ended all speculations that BJD would join the INDI Alliance in future against the BJP.
Similarly, Naveen sought to keep a clear distance from the BJP too by not openly supporting the NDA candidate. BJP was eyeing a thumping victory for C. P. Radhakrishnan to prove a point that its strength has increased further, but Naveen refused to bite the bait. He stayed away from both candidates. Although many hastily term this move as a “support to BJP”, there is little doubt that it will make no difference to the results whether BJD votes in favour or against the NDA candidate.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh interpreted it as a “positive development” as BJD was seen as a “close ally” of BJP at the centre for long. If we analyse deeply, Naveen has drifted away from BJP by not giving what they wanted. However, Odisha Congress leaders refused to believe Jairam Ramesh’s analysis. By rejecting both the candidates, Naveen tried to give a new energy to the party sans those who wanted to take sides in this poll.
