Naveen Patnaik will cry if someone talks to him alone for 10 minutes without VK Pandian present: Himanta

He said none of his friends in BJD could meet Naveen Patnaik alone in the past 10 years. “Whenever someone meets the CM, it’s in the presence of Pandian. Naveen Babu only says ‘ok, ok’,” he said.

Sarma said that while even Opposition CMs like Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, and Mamata Banerjee meet people alone, Patnaik is the “only CM in India who cannot talk to anyone alone”.

“Naveen Babu will cry if someone talks to him alone for 10 minutes without the presence of Pandian,” the Assam CM claimed.

Continuing the BJP’s attack on Pandian, a former bureaucrat who is now the BJD’s top election strategist, Sarma said, “Pandian is the CM of Odisha now, and we have to remove him and bring a CM who is from Odisha.” Pandian is a native of Tamil Nadu.

BJD’s organisational secretary, Pranab Prakash Das, took to X and said it was unbecoming of the BJP to bring leaders from outside the state to make “insulting” comments.

“Be it spreading lies about the health of the CM or the mindset of opposing the development of the state, the people of Odisha already know the lies of the BJP. They do not accept such lies. Naveen Babu will be sworn in as CM on June 9 with the blessings of 4.5 crore people of Odisha,” Das said in a post.