BHUBANESWAR : With the BJD grappling with rising internal discontent and desertion of senior leaders, former Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patasani, who had quit the regional outfit to join the BJP before the elections this year, on Tuesday attributed the current turmoil in the party to former bureaucrat and then chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s close aide VK Pandian.
A founding member of the BJD and a five-time MP from Bhubaneswar, Patasani said, “I had to quit BJD because of VK Pandian and the popular government led by Naveen Patnaik was unseated due to him. It hurts when a person like me who was a founding member of the party is forced to quit.”
Responding to mediapersons a day after senior BJD leader Amar Prasad Satpathy disassociated himself from the party saying it has now become suffocating for anybody to continue in the regional outfit, Patasani said the feeling was echoed by many. He also expressed doubts about Pandian’s retirement from active politics. “The confidante of former chief minister still wields considerable influence in the party. The BJD will never win another election till he is around,” he said.
Patasani also supported Satpathy’s demand that party supremo Naveen Patnaik should own up responsibility for the defeat in 2024 Assembly and LS elections. “I support whatever Satpathy has said. I feel the same thing,” he stated.