BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Sunday announced support for the NDA Vice-President candidate Jagdeep Dhankar. The announcement of backing the present Governor of West Bengal to the post came following a telephone call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The ruling party sources said, the Chief Minister assured all support to Dhankar and also told the Prime Minister that BJD leaders will be present during the filing of his nomination papers.
BJD’s decision on the Vice-President candidate came on a day when senior Congress leader Margaret Alva was announced as the Opposition nominee for the post. The BJD stand on the Vice-President candidate seems to have completely changed the political character of the party which followed the equidistant theory not so long back.
In 2017, the BJD had supported NDA’s Presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind but had gone with the Opposition vice-president pick, Gopal Krishna Gandhi. Then BJD’s Parliamentary party spokesman Kalikesh Singhdeo told media persons that the Chief Minister has proved that the BJD has been maintaining equal distance from the Congress and the BJP.
A complete change in the BJD’s stand was discernible after the party announced support for the NDA’s Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu. The BJD had campaigned in support of Murmu by urging the Congress MLAs of the State to vote for her after the Chief Minister announced that the party will try to ensure all votes from the State in her favour.
Congress criticised the Chief Minister after his decision. Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Narasingh Mishra cited Puri Shankaracharya Nischalananda Saraswati’s statement and said that there is actually no difference between the BJD and BJP.
Stating that the Chief Minister has turned into a most trusted ally of the BJP, Mishra said that nobody knows whether there is any compulsion or it is a political game plan. “Only Naveen Babu knows,” he added.