On the eve of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with her Odisha counterpart, Naveen Patnaik, there was a lot of speculation in the media about the possibility of the two leaders discussing the formation of a joint front of regional parties against both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress party. Fuelling such speculation was the fact that the meeting was taking place in the wake of Didi’s tête-à-tête with former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata where the two leaders decided to work towards the formation of a front that would keep both BJP and Congress out.
Newshounds were, however, completely disappointed when neither Banerjee nor Patnaik spoke anything on the subject. Instead, both sought to underline the need to strengthen the federal structure of the country further. This is an issue close to the heart of Patnaik, who has always been a votary of cooperative federalism. His efforts to ensure that cooperative federalism becomes stronger in the country have also drawn praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While the disappointment of media persons waiting outside Naveen Niwas for juicy bytes from Didi and Patnaik on the possible formation of a front of regional parties can be understood, political analysts who have watched the five-time chief minister of Odisha closely were not surprised at all that the issue did not come up for discussion at the meeting. Even though Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal follows an avowed policy of maintaining equidistance from the BJP and Congress, he has consistently steered away from any move to deliberately provoke either of the two parties.
There are two obvious reasons for Patnaik following this strategy. For one, he is keenly aware of the fact that the BJD, being well entrenched in the consciousness of Odisha people, is unlikely to face any real challenge from any of these parties in the state and hence he is not going to gain anything by provoking them. For another, having ruled Odisha for 22 years now, he is so confident about his hold over the people of the state that he considers it unnecessary and a waste of time to indulge in this kind of opportunistic politics.
Hence, the BJD boss has always taken a dignified stand in such matters. Instead of becoming a part of political permutations and combinations explored by regional chieftains such as Banerjee and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Patnaik has always charted his own independent path. While he is not hesitant about criticizing the BJP on issues where he is not happy either with the party or its government at the Centre, he has also lent it support on matters of national interest. Both his criticism and support of the BJP-led government at the Centre have been issue-based.
More importantly, unlike many of his counterparts in other states, he has always taken care to use dignified language in political discourse. This is what makes him different and makes even top national leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, treat him with a lot of respect.
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