BHUBANESWAR: Ever since he exited the Indian Administrative Service and officially took the plunge last year, the big question hanging over VK Pandian’s political ascendancy was not when; it was rather how soon.
The soon has become the moment. The 2024 Odisha elections have become all about Pandian. He has virtually become the face of the BJD after Chief Minister Naven Patnaik and the biggest campaigner of the regional party while the Opposition BJP and Congress have made him their prime target. Pandian is the singular poll issue this summer in Odisha. The BJD’s development juggernaut and BJP’s ‘vikash’ narrative have slowly receded into the background.
Pandian is not complaining though. In fact, he is basking in the attention as he hops on to the chopper from one packed public meeting to another. The 49-year-old is not only fronting the party but has also taken it upon himself to cover maximum number of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies for the BJD.
Pandian has already established a complete command over the BJD with every political action and decision of the party bearing his nod and the ministers, MPs and MLAs accepting him as the leader after Naveen but now he is positioning himself before the people as the CM’s political heir.
And here lies the catch. The Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat-turned-politician holding the centrestage of a regional party and addressing people in faltering Odia has drawn in the outsider factor and the BJP and Congress have sensed an opportunity to take the game on to the BJD.
From the much-repeated double-engine government slogan, the BJP has already changed track to make ‘Odia Asmita’ (Odia identity) as its main poll issue. The obvious target is Pandian. The BJP has zeroed in on the right hand man of Naveen as a weak link, who carries the baggage of being an outsider. It has begun to aggressively drive the message that Pandian will become the chief minister after Naveen.
Not only in Odisha but the top national leadership of the saffron party are no longer hesitating from raking up the issue. Party national president JP Nadda in his public meeting at Berhampur very recently warned that an outsider is being imposed and groomed to take over the mantle of the chief minister of the state. The same day, Rahul Gandhi too took potshots at Pandian. Union Home Minister Amit Shah earlier last week pointed out that Naveen’s decision to contest from the second seat in Balangir’s Kantabanji was a clever strategy to elect his political heir.
And now that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also raised the issue of Odia identity and language as a major poll plank of BJP, the archlight is firmly settled on Pandian. The BJD leader is also not backing away.
He is also in no mood for oblique references and has gone about questioning BJP’s double-engine and the saffron party’s contribution to development of the state, Odia identity and language. He also does not hide his sense of growing popularity among the voters during the meetings. “BJP leaders should come to some of my meetings to see for themselves people’s affection for me,” he told a TV channel.
But the perspectives come from the past. The BJP and BJD were good friends till a few weeks back and even an alliance was being stitched up before it collapsed. In their last meeting in March, both Modi and Naveen were effusive in their praise for each other at Jajpur.
After the elections, only the numbers would decide if the two parties remain opponents or turn back the clock to become the usual ‘frenemies.’ The BJP’s ‘Odia Asmita’ stand would then come back to test it while the BJD will have to prove its regional identity is intact. For Pandian, the singular face of the 2024 election in Odisha, the stakes are higher because the future of BJD will be in his hands. His moment of reckoning is here.