BJD joins Opposition protest against CEC, signals shift from BJP
Its ties with former ally BJP strained since last year, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday made an exception to its policy of maintaining equidistance from both the ruling party and the Congress-led Opposition. The Naveen Patnaik-led party joined the INDIA bloc’s protest march in Delhi demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
BJD chief Patnaik, who has already demanded Kumar’s resignation and the revisiting of the SIR exercise, asked party MPs in the Rajya Sabha to join the protest.
“We have joined the protest as a responsible Opposition party. The exclusion of more than 20 lakh voters in Odisha and over 13 crore voters across the country in the name of SIR has raised serious concerns and we believe this was done quite deliberately,” said the BJD’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, Manas Mangaraj.
Mangaraj clarified that the BJD was not part of the INDIA bloc. But by joining the Opposition protest, the regional party appears to be signalling that the gloves are off in its fight against the BJP, the party that ended its 24-year rule in Odisha in June 2024.
The BJP also inflicted a major blow in the Lok Sabha polls the same year as the BJD failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat, a first since the regional party came into existence in 1997. The BJP won 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
BJD insiders said the decision to join the Opposition protest was a calculated move, keeping in mind the public mood on the issue.
The BJD’s changed stance received the approval of another regional player that is in a crisis of its own: key INDIA bloc ally and Mamata All India Trinamool Congress.
“Gratitude to @bjd_odisha Chief @Naveen_Odisha for deputing two MPs, Manas Mangaraj and Sulata Deo, and former MP Muzibulla Khan to the Opposition’s protest march in Delhi today against the CEC and SIR Scam. We are on the ground. UNITED,” Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien wrote on X.
A senior BJD leader said Naveen Patnaik is a “clever politician, who always reads the public mood” and chose to go with the flow and the decision to join the Opposition protest is part of the same game plan.
“No matter the legal fallout of the SIR exercise, the Supreme Court has already intervened, but the functioning of the poll panel is under intense public scrutiny. With the poll panel facing a credibility crisis, there is a growing perception among people that a majority of its decisions tend to favour the BJP,” said the leader, requesting anonymity.
BJD insiders also believe that the party is also a victim of poll discrepancies during the Assembly and parliamentary elections, which contributed to its defeat. “We have pointed out several discrepancies during the 2024 assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha and also sought intervention of the Election Commission of India. We got no concrete reply from the poll panel,” said Sulata Deo.
After the 2024 polls, the BJD had flagged three major concerns: the difference between the total votes polled at each booth and the number of votes counted from the corresponding Electronic Voting Machines during polling, the difference in the votes cast for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections despite them being held simultaneously, and the “huge difference” between voter turnouts released on polling day and the final figure, which the EC released two days later.
A slow shift
Besides, the BJD’s shift in political strategy is not a sudden move. The party has been gradually changing course since it lost power. After the poll debacle, it announced it would stop providing “issue-based support” to the NDA government and subsequently joined the Opposition in staging a walkout from the Rajya Sabha over the NEET issue back in July 2024.
In March 2025, Patnaik joined a meeting called by DMK leader and then Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin against the Delimitation Bill. Earlier this year, the regional party also joined hands with Congress to field a joint candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls, though they failed to win.
During the recent Gen-Z protest and amid mounting pressure on the Union government over the NEET paper leak and examination reforms, Patnaik also supported the call for Dharmendra Pradhan to resign as Union Education Minister. Patnaik also launched a direct attack on the government over the recently passed Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, alleging that it deprives the state of levying any tax on mining lease holders. This was against Odisha’s interests, the former CM alleged. The BJD chief recently led a protest against the new law.
“Being a regional party, we should fight against the Centre to fulfil the regional aspirations to keep the impression of a state-based party intact. Our siding with the Centre on every issue backfired in the polls. Hence, we decided to fight the BJP,” said a BJD leader.
Senior BJP leader Biranchi Narayan Tripathy criticised the BJD’s shift, saying, “The party has been facing an existential crisis after losing power as leaders are distancing from it. It has been using non-issues to show its relevance.”
