As BJD leaders slam ‘outside forces’, Naveen Patnaik comes out in support of aide V K Pandian

“Some like-minded leaders of our party met to discuss party matters. We want to make it clear that Naveen Patnaik is the only and the undisputed leader of Odisha and we all are with him. If any outside force will try to weaken his leadership in any situation, we will not tolerate it,” senior BJD leader and three-time MLA Shashi Bhusan Behera told reporters after the meeting.

Though Behera refused to take any specific names when asked who he was referring to as an “outside force”, it was seen as an oblique reference to V K Pandian, Patnaik’s close aide and former private secretary who wielded powerful influence during Patnaik’s chief ministership.

Most of the leaders at Wednesday’s meeting, belonging to the BJD advisory committee, had earlier too questioned Pandian’s role on many occasions. They alleged that even though Pandian, who spearheaded the BJD’s campaign during the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, announced he would quit active politics following the BJD’s defeat, he continues to “interfere” in the BJD’s internal matters as he enjoys the confidence of the party chief.

However, Patnaik has since “disapproved” of the meeting, saying it should have been held at Sankha Bhawan, the BJD headquarters. Amid the growing discontent against Pandian, the former CM also not only backed his trusted aide, but also hailed his contributions.

“I want to state quite clearly that Kartikeyan Pandian, in the past, has done a lot of good work not only for the state, but also for the party. So, he shouldn’t be criticised or blamed for anything. Also, he left the party more than 10 months ago and is in no way involved in any of the party’s work,” Patnaik said on Wednesday.

The leaders at the meeting claimed that the Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer was behind the party’s last-minute decision to allow the MPs to “exercise their conscience”. Of the BJD’s seven MPs in the Upper House, three voted for the Bill and three against it, with Debashish Samantaray abstaining.

While Patnaik and the BJD had been vocal on their opposition to the Waqf Bill, the party shifted its stand at the last moment on the evening of April 3 – when the Bill was being debated in the Rajya Sabha – deciding not to issue a whip and leave voting to its individual party MPs as per their “conscience”.

“If any individual or particular group will try to run the party as per their whims, how can we sit silent and allow them to do so? We also discussed how the particular group is trying to accommodate leaders from their camp as presidents of the BJD’s various district units as part of the ongoing organisational poll process,” a leader said.

Sources said the senior leaders also held discussions to identify on whose instructions four Rajya Sabha MPs came out in support of Pandian, and criticised Samantaray for claiming Pandian was responsible for the flip-flop on the Waqf Bill.

A slew of BJD leaders, including Samantaray, had decried the party’s “volte-face” over the Waqf legislation, alleging that a “conspiracy” and a “deal with the BJP” was behind it.

Hitting back at his MP colleagues who criticised him, Samantaray said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that those who recently joined the BJD and were appointed to party positions “neither know the party’s history nor the ideology of Biju Patnaik”. “Lakhs of workers and many senior leaders have worked to strengthen the party and to popularise it at the national level. But some leaders are not acquainted with Naveen Babu’s ideology, party’s secular credentials and its commitment for Odisha. They are controlled by someone else. They are selfish and not concerned for either Naveen Babu… or the BJD or Odisha,” Samantaray said.

Samantaray also said the BJD’s loss in the 2024 polls was due to “Odia Asmita (Odia pride)”, an apparent dig at Pandian for his non-Odia identity, which the BJP had used to target the BJD. “We are the people of the land of Lord Jagannath. Our key objective is to uphold our asmita,” Samantaray added.

Though many leaders continue to back Patnaik, it is Pandian’s role that continues to polarise the party. “A section of BJD leaders, who benefited from Pandian, might be praising him. But a majority of party leaders and workers believe that the BJD lost the polls due to Pandian. A party group, however, is still trying to project Pandian as its future,” said party leader Pravat Tripathy recently.

Tripathy, who had criticised Pandian and blamed him for the party’s 2024 loss, is among several leaders who claim they were “sidelined” in the party in the wake of Pandian’s rise after the 2019 polls. However, Patnaik dismissed Tripathy’s claims on Pandian, saying that ex-MLA Tripathy was “expelled” from the BJD after he was indicted in a chit fund. Tripathy was suspended from the BJD in 2014 but his suspension was revoked in 2017 after he got bail.