Modi’s Kid Glove Mode Against Naveen Govt Shows Political Compulsion

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Odisha had raised hope for BJP party cadres, confident that the PM would fire all cylinders at the Naveen Patnaik Government. But what the party workers did not anticipate was that Modi would rather be mild in his criticism of the BJD rule in the state and rather dwell on what his government has done for Odisha.

In its opinion piece, News18.com said that Modi’s “kid-glove” mode should be seen from the prism of pure political necessity, especially at a time when BJP is smarting from the electoral defeat in the three Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

Although the panchayat elections had rekindled hopes for BJP and an optimistic announcement then by party chief Amit Shah of capturing 120 seats in the State assembly polls, it now seemed reconciled to the fact that it stands little chance of wresting power from the Patnaik government.

“…it makes eminent political sense to concede defeat and hand over Odisha to Naveen Patnaik on a platter in the hope that the BJD supremo would continue to bail out the NDA, if needed, after the general elections in 2019, just as he has done in the current term of the Lok Sabha”.

Analysts see Naveen’s ‘equi-distant from both BJP and Congress’ as nothing more than a jumla that allows him to keep the door ajar for a post-poll understanding, tacit or otherwise, with either of them depending on the situation, the news portal maintained.