One of the peculiar aspects of this election in Odisha is that the BJP, which hopes to have stamped itself as the BJD’s primary rival come 23 May 2019, needs the votes of erstwhile Congress voters more than anyone else, in order to dent the dominance of Naveen Patnaik and his party.

But does Patnaik’s BJD face a stiff challenge from either the BJP or the Congress? Have 19 years of uninterrupted rule gathered enough anti-incumbency to push the BJD out of power and Naveen Patnaik out of his chief ministership, or could the party sweep the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state yet again à la 2014?

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