Naveen Patnaik defends VK Pandian amid BJD crisis, criticises hotel meetings
BHUBANESWAR: As the crisis in the BJD over the change of stand on the Waqf Amendment Bill intensified, party president Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday threw his weight behind trusted aide VK Pandian stating that the former bureaucrat should not be blamed for anything as he left the party more than 10 months ago and is not involved in any of the party’s work.
“I want to state quite clearly that Karthikeyan Pandian, in the past, has done a lot of good work not only for the state but for the party. So, he should not be criticised or blamed for anything. Also, he left the party more than 10 months ago and is not involved in any of the party’s work,” Naveen told mediapersons here.
Earlier in the day, several leaders of the party held a meeting at a hotel in Patia area of the city to discuss the emerging situation. Those who attended the meeting included former ministers Debi Mishra, Arun Sahoo, Sashi Bhusan Behera, Ashok Panda, Sanjay Das Burma, Bhupinder Singh and Anshuman Mohanty.
Naveen, however, strongly disapproved of meetings in hotels held by his party members. “They have the party office ‘Sankha Bhawan’, which is a large building where they have been told they should hold their meetings and they should do so,” he added.
The party president also came down heavily on former government chief whip and senior leader Pravat Tripathy for targeting Pandian. Tripathy had stated that the former bureaucrat was responsible for the decline of BJD and the party’s defeat in the 2024 election.
Naveen had strong words for Tripathy. “I want to state here quite clearly that Pravat Tripathy, ex-MLA, was expelled from the BJD some years ago because he was indicted in the chit-fund case and has spent some years in jail,” he said and added that Tripathy does not belong to the party.
Interestingly, the party president had revoked the suspension of Tripathy from BJD on November 11, 2017 who was at that time representing the Banki assembly constituency. Tripathy was suspended from the party immediately after his arrest by the CBI in October 2014 for his alleged involvement in chit fund scam. However, his son Devi Ranjan Tripathy was nominated by the party and went on to be an MLA.
On the day, seven youth leaders of the party wrote to Naveen urging him to announce the future course of action. They expressed their surprise over the manner in which the parliamentary party stood divided over the issue of voting in the Waqf Amendment Bill. “This has hurt Biju lovers of the entire state. Action is necessary against those who went against the party policy in this instance,” they added.
The youth leaders including Mohanty, Devi Ranjan Tripathy, former MLAs Rudra Pratap Maharathy, Chandra Sarathi Behera, Bishnubrata Routray and Pranab Balabantray had also met at a hotel in the city on Tuesday to discuss the issue.