Bhubaneswar: Amid reports of growing rift within the BJD over the party‘s controversial stand on the Waqf Bill in Rajya Sabha, BJD president and former CM Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday strongly defended V K Pandian, his close aide, who has been facing criticism from a section of leaders over the party’s flip-flop.
Naveen, who also came down heavily on his colleagues for holding ‘large’ meetings in hotels, said, “I want to state quite clearly that Sri Kartikeyan Pandian in the past did a lot of good work, not only for the state, but also for the party. So, he shouldn’t be criticised or blamed for anything.”
Pointing out that Pandian left the party more than 10 months back, Naveen told the media, “He is not involved in any of the party’s work,” making it clear that the bureaucrat-turned-politician was not behind the party’s last-moment decision change on the Bill.
The BJD president, however, did not clarify who took the decision to go for conscience voting on the legislation from the initial stated position of opposing it, resulting in split voting in Rajya Sabha. The BJD has 51 MLAs in 147-member assembly and 7 Rajya Sabha members.
Ever since the Waqf Bill controversy, several senior BJD leaders met Naveen and demanded action against those responsible for the last-moment change in stance, with some openly holding Pandian responsible for the flip-flop.
On a day when many senior leaders held a meeting in a hotel, Naveen said, “I would like to state here that I disapprove of any large meetings in hotels held by party members. They have the party office, Sankha Bawan, which is a large building, where they’ve been told they should hold their meeting. They should do so.”
Earlier in the day, senior BJD leader Shashi Bhusan Behera, said there is no harm in holding such a meeting.
Naveen also slammed former MLA Pravat Tripathy, who recently criticised Pandian for the Rajya Sabha fiasco, saying Tripathy was expelled from the BJD some years ago after he was indicted in a chit fund case and spent some years in jail. “I want to clarify again that he doesn’t belong to the party,” the former CM said.
Naveen, however, did not speak about others who have criticised Pandian. Rajya Sabha member Debashish Samantaray blamed Pandian for the party’s flip-flop, while a section of BJD workers, who accompanied Rajya Sabha member Muzibulla Khan to Naveen’s residence, had also raised anti-Pandian slogans.