CALCUTTA, 12 April 2004 — Excitement is running high in Orissa — a byword for poverty and backwardness — where simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections are scheduled in two phases on April 20 and 26.

While the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance has pulled out all stops to retain power in the eastern state, the two key constituents of the National Democratic Alliance are also determined to win as many Lok Sabha seats in Orissa as possible.

The ruling front is grappling not only with the Congress party-led combine comprising Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Orissa Gana Parishad and Communist Party of India (Marxist) but also with a rapidly intensifying anti-incumbency wave threatening to topple the BJD-BJP front.

Analysts say that the BJD-BJP alliance is in the dock for bad governance and the opposition is in an advantageous position simply by default. According to them, even the chief minister’s relatively clean image; compared to Congress challenger J. B. Patnaik’s murky profile; may not be enough to win.

Growing unemployment is a major issue in the backward state where voters are angry with both the federal and state government for their failure to generate jobs promised in election manifestoes. A stagnant economy is another albatross round the state government’s neck.

But Naveen Patnaik blasted his critics after filing his nomination from the Hinjili assembly seat which he won comfortably in 2000 by a margin of over 26,000 votes. He declared that the opposition was in a disarray but he was absolutely confident of returning to power for a second consecutive term.

Poll officials are finalizing arrangements for elections in 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats spread over 155,707 sq km with a 25.6 million-strong electorate. The last time Orissa witnessed simultaneous parliamentary and assembly elections was way back in 1971.

The stakes are so high that as many as 17 sitting MLAs belonging to key political parties have not been re-nominated. Among them is the Orissa speaker who quit the BJD because he was denied a ticket to contest the Mahanga assembly seat.

A lot of water has flowed down the Mahanadi since 1998 when the BJD and BJP gradually evicted Congress from power, promising to improve the lot of the common man in Orissa.

The BJD, which was born Dec. 15, 1997 when the Janata Dal split, won nine seats in the 1998 Lok Sabha elections. In the 1999 parliamentary elections, it increased its tally to 10. The BJP too gained from its alliance with the BJD. In 1998, the BJP bagged seven Lok Sabha seats. In 1999 it increased its tally to 9: the BJD-BJP combine wrested 19 seats. Congress managed to win only two seats.

In March 2000, the BJD-BJP combine swept the assembly elections winning 106 seats (BJD 68 and BJP 38). Congress cut a sorry figure winning only 26 seats despite changing three chief ministers in a desperate bid to regain the electorate’s confidence.

But this time the BJD-BJP combine has much to fear. It is banking not only on Naveen Patnaik’s clean image to see it through but also on Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani who is scheduled to address meetings in 14 Orissa towns in two days on the final leg of his countrywide march which will culminate in Puri.

According to reports, one of the most interesting aspects of poll battles about to be fought in Orissa is the fact that 12 political families have fielded two or three candidates each.

And Congress, which is trying to stage a comeback in what was once considered its pocket borough, accounts for eight such clans which have two or more family member in the electoral race.