Why BJP keeps raising Naveen Patnaik’s health, and why BJD blames an Odisha BJP face

While Panda always refuted the same, lingering suspicion regarding this was one of the factors that had led the BJD to suspend the leader, the party’s face in Delhi, in January 2018. In May that year, Panda had joined the BJP, and is its candidate from the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat this time.

To further dispel apprehensions about Patnaik’s health, the BJD had released a short video ahead of the 2019 polls that depicted the Odisha CM’s exercise routine at his residence.

In 2019, the Patnaik-led party won 112 seats in the Assembly (of 146 that voted, as election in one seat was countermanded), five less than the previous polls, while the BJP increased its tally to 23, from 10 in 2014.

Ahead of the 2022 panchayat polls, again talk began about how fit Patnaik was. The CM blamed “vested interests”, and claimed that the very fact that such rumour-mongering” was being done showed that the BJD was going to do very well.

Speaking to reporters in February 2022 after offering prayers at the famed Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, Patnaik said: “Whenever there is an election, these rumours are started that my health is not well. I can assure all of you that I am in perfect health, very happy and here to serve the people of Odisha.”

The BJD had swept the 2022 panchayat elections in Odisha, winning 766 of the total 852 zilla parishad seats, a big jump from the 476 it had won in 2017. The BJP had managed to secure only 42 seats, a steep fall from 297 in 2017.

However, while it serves the BJP to have questions lingering over the BJD chief’s health, the speculation also keeps surfacing given the CM’s highly curtailed public engagements in the past four years. Post-Covid epidemic, the 77-year-old CM, who is now seeking a sixth straight term in office, has largely confined himself to Naveen Niwas, his residence.

Since March 2020, he has been attending office work from home, with meetings, including with officials and of the Cabinet, held over videoconferencing. At all these meetings, the only person physically present with Patnaik is his close aide and former private secretary V K Pandian, now a BJD leader.

In its campaign, the BJP continuously targeted Pandian, saying the Tamil Nadu-origin bureaucrat was running the affairs in Odisha and “controlling” Patnaik.

A senior BJP leader said their line of attack was justified. “There is a strong perception that the BJD may disintegrate in a post-Naveen Patnaik scenario and break up into multiple groups, the same as the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu… We wanted to convince the people that if they voted for the BJD, it would only strengthen the anti-Odia lobby, with Pandian enjoying power from behind the scenes,” the leader said.

A Bhubaneshwar-based political analyst, Sandeep Sahu, agreed that people too are wondering “whether Patnaik can deliver or complete five years in office”. However, he added, it was “distasteful and unbecoming” of Modi to raise this at an election rally, even promising a probe into “the sudden decline in Pattnaik’s health” in recent times.

Apart from Modi, Union minister Amit Shah suggested that Patnaik “retire” due to his “advanced age and health issues”. During a roadshow in Bhubaneswar, BJP president J P Nadda said people of the state had decided to “give rest to Naveen babu”. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma, a top campaigner for the BJP, said Patnaik was under “a hostage situation”, hinting at Pandian’s hand.

Rebutting Modi, Patnaik said in the hours leading up to the end of campaigning: “If the PM has to form a committee, I suggest he form a committee to look into the people who are spreading such rumours about my health.”

He also again suggested Panda’s hand, saying a number of people originally from Odisha who were now in the BJP have been spreading rumours about his health “for the last 10 years”.

While campaigning in Kendrapara on May 27, Pandian, in presence of Patnaik, directly blamed Panda, saying he had begun the rumours after the CM denied him a chance to be chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament when he was a BJD MP.

BJD spokesperson Amar Patnaik said the CM had himself clarified the health issue and there was nothing to add. “I would say it’s foolish on the part of the BJP to raise it. People have rejected such attempts in the past and will do so again.”