Earlier articles in this series:

1.In the Orissa context, What parties have done right? What have they done wrong?
2.What outcome is good for Orissa in Elections 2009?
3.My Initial Analysis of Elections 2009 in Orissa

This is a bit premature as BJD’s complete list of candidates has not come out yet. But my prediction after seeing the first list is that BJD is vulnerable in one main point. As BJD has not picked highly comptent, trusted by the CM and Pyari babu, people at the MLA level, if one asks them the following questions then they will not have the proper answers.

 

  • Who will be your ministers?
  • Who will run the ministries?
  • Are they competent to run ministries?
  • Do Naveen and Pyari trust them to allow them to take decisions?
  • Will Naveen and Pyari micromanage everything?
  • Or will they let the bureaucrats run the show as during the last 9 years?
  • How often ministers were thrown out during the last 9 years? How badly they managed?

In other words there does not seem to be any one running at the MLA level in the BJD outside of Naveen babu one can name and say that this person is clean and super-competent and would be a good minister. Beause the Congress and BJP are much worse options, my vote would still go to BJD but I don’t expect any big change in the Orissa governance; Naveen and Pyari (quarter time; as he is an MP as well as party strategeist)  will take the major decisions and the bureaucrats will run the show and since 1-2 people (Naveen and Pyari) can only do so much by themselves many good intentions and plans will not get properly implemented and there will be regular scandals; not the money or bribe kind; but scandals based on expose of incompetency of various ministries. I wish there was another clean, competent and viable option to BJD.