BJD Party leaders mum over poll debacle
Though a few top leaders of the party initially blamed “over-indulgence” of party president and ex-chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s bureaucrat-turned-politician aide V K Pandian in the party affairs and his “excessive interference” in the government system, they have now kept mum, apparently waiting for Naveen to declare as to what led to the party’s poor performance
BHUBANESWAR: An uneasy calm prevails in Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) which lost power to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after a little over 24 years’ stint in power in the state. The party, though won 51 of the 147 assembly seats, just falling short of just 23 seats to reach the majority mark, — has not come out with any statements as yet as to what dashed its hope of coming to power for the record sixth term.
Though a few top leaders of the party initially blamed “over-indulgence” of party president and ex-chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s bureaucrat-turned-politician aide V K Pandian in the party affairs and his “excessive interference” in the government system, they have now kept mum, apparently waiting for Naveen to declare as to what led to the party’s poor performance.
On June 4 when the results started pouring in from counting centres and initial trends showed the BJD losing power, there was strong resentment among the leaders against Pandian and party’s organising secretary Pranab Prakash Das. All the BJD leaders expected that the CM would clear the air on Tamil Nadu-born Pandian’s excessive interference in the governance system. However, they were heartbroken after Naveen Patnaik on June 5 said Pandian had made no mistake at all and his contribution to the party was immense. The former CM also went on to add that Pandian’s integrity was above doubt and he should not be bad-mouthed by anyone.
Though the BJD had announced to form a committee to find out the reasons for the party's defeat, the body has not yet taken any shape. When asked about the delay in formation of the fact-finding team, senior BJP leader Arun Kumar Sahoo on Tuesday said the party would “probably” take a call on it on Wednesday.
“The BJD Legislature Party (BJDLP) is scheduled to meet on Wednesday. The party will most probably make an assessment of the poll outcome and form a committee to arrive at the fact that accounted for the party’s defeat,” said Sahoo.
On being asked who will be the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Sahoo skipped a direct answer and said, “This will be decided in the BJDLP meeting.”
The BJD which had won 12 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 drew a blank this time.