BJP- BJD tacit deal to share power in Odish: PCC chief Sarat Pattanayak
BHUBANESWAR: The political atmosphere in Odisha on Tuesday got warmed up ahead of the 2024 elections following the voluntary retirement (VRS) of chief minister Naveen Patnik’s private secretary V Karthikeyan Pandian and his subsequent appointment as chairman of the 5T (Transformational Initiatives) and ‘Naveen Odisha” welfare programme.
The Congress took a jibe at both the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by saying that quick acceptance of Pandian’s VRS and his subsequent appointment was a “well-orchestrated” drama to fool the people of Odisha.
“The resignation of V Karthikeyan Pandian is just eyewash. A larger conspiracy by both the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and BJP has begun to grab power in Odisha. The government of Odisha wrote a letter to the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on October 20, 2023. Three days later, on October 23, it was accepted. What is quite surprising is that the (DoPT) showed unprecedented haste to accept the resignation. This clearly shows that BJP which poses itself as rival of BJD has in fact a tacit understanding with the latter to grab power in Odisha,” said the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak.
Pandian is a very powerful bureaucrat. He, on behalf of the CM Naveen Patnaik, recently toured to almost all 147 assembly constituencies in the state and announced thousands of crore rupees projects. The opposition Congress and BJP had strongly reacted to Pandian playing such a role. They maintained that delegation of power to the bureaucrat was unconstitutional.
Stating that there were many precedents in the past when the IAS officers had to resign after their VRS applications were rejected by the Centre, the OPCC chief said in the case of Pandian the Centre did not take such a stand. Add to this, the DoPT also allowed waiver of the notice period to the officer, he added.
According to Pattanayak, the BJD and BJP shared a good rapport and they were contemplating fighting the upcoming elections in Odisha together. He dubbed VK Pandian as the “political agent” of BJD and BJP.
“The BJD and BJP have jointly exploited Odisha. They encouraged mining and chit fund scams. These parties are anti-people and I call upon all Odias to reject them in the 2024 Lok Sabha and State Assembly polls,” observed the OPCC chief.
When asked about VK Pandian’s new role, senior BJD leader, Sashi Bhusan Behera said, “For CM Naveen Patnaik, Odisha’s development and people’s interest is top priority. Hence, VK Pandian has been bestowed upon a new role to take the agenda forward. He has been playing a crucial role in developing Odisha as an officer and he has been given a special role. We hope that VK Pandian will take this forward.”
When asked about accepting Pandian’s VRS application in three days, Behera said that such a decision was taken by the Centre and they can comment on it.
