Following the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and Odisha assembly polls, close aide of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and former bureaucrat turned politician V.K. Pandian has chosen to retire from active politics, dealing a blow to the party.
VK Pandian said he was surprised by the BJP’s aggressive campaign of calling him a “outsider” after Patnaik declared his decision to leave active politics.
“Now consciously I decide to withdraw myself from active politics. I am sorry if I have hurt anyone on this journey. I am sorry if this campaign narrative against me has had a part to play in BJD’s loss. My apologies to the entire Biju Parivaar including all the ‘karmis’ for this,” the BJD leader said in a video message.
Pandian stated that he did not run for office because his sole goal in entering politics was to support Patnaik.
With 78 seats in the 178-member Odisha Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surprised the BJD, which could only muster 51 members. In the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP also won 20 of the 21 seats in the State.
Pandian has faced criticism over the party’s election loss. Naveen Patnaik, the party’s leader and outgoing chief minister, defended his close aide and called the criticism regrettable.
Additionally, the development is in line with Patnaik’s declaration that Pandian was not his “successor” and that the people of the state will make that determination.
Patnaik has had Pandian, an IAS official from the 2000 batch, as his private secretary for more over twenty years. He left the bureaucracy voluntarily in 2023 and then joined the BJD.Under CM Naveen Patnaik, 77, the BJD’s uninterrupted 24-year rule came to an end when he was replaced by the Bharatiya Janata Party?
BJP, which had been in power alongside Naveen as a junior coalition partner in Odisha from 2000 to 2009, capitalised on the anti-incumbency factor to craft a meticulous campaign strategy for a double engine government. This strategy blended emotive issues such as Odia asmita (pride), people’s aspirations, and the decisive leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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BJD chief Naveen Patnaik’s close aide VK Pandian quits active politics
