Odisha: BJD in Turmoil as Patnaik Battles Health Issues, Pandian Holds Decree

Since the past few months, it seems the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha is standing on quicksand, unable to wriggle out.

This is mainly so after a string of health issues that BJD Naveen Patnaik has been battling. As the main Opposition in the state, there is an internecine conflict over the party leadership, as Patnaik is in Delhi, perhaps, convalescing after his prolonged illness, and his trusted deputy V K Pandian, a civil servant-turned BJD leader, has been calling the shots in every matter. This has slowly become an eyesore for all in this regional outfit.

Of late, Pandian appears to have become the common reason for angst among almost all the senior BJD leaders, some of whom have already voiced their discontentment against the IAS officer-turned-leader.

Although senior BJD leaders, including some founding members, have not come out so openly against the ‘empowering’ of Pandian, the murmur within the party has somehow become audible now, with voices of even some BJD foot soldiers being directed at Pandian’s mandate, accorded to him by none other than Patnaik himself.

“That may also be described as a self-acquired mandate by Pandian himself, taking advantage of the ageing supremo struggling with health issues. Many BJD leaders are no longer ready to enslave themselves to Pandian, viewed as the man who pushed the party to suffer the electoral debacle in 2024,” observed Kameswar Rao, a senior journalist in Odisha.      

A BJD fresher named Sreemayi Mishra, who had been tipped to contest the Lok Sabha election for Bhubaneswar and had campaigned for over a month and then dropped from the race, has virtually turned a rebel of sorts after being denied the chance to fight as the party candidate. Mishra has started hogging the limelight in certain sections of the media for dubbing Patnaik as Dhritarastra, who is allowing his Man Friday Pandian to run political affairs with an unquestionable writ.

Mishra has tweeted describing Pandian as a man who has maintained “double standards” by walking on two tracks. It is worth recalling that Pandian had announced that he was taking ‘sanyas’ (renunciation) from politics after the 2024 poll debacle, but that was a mere smokescreen as he is the one who is overseeing all political matters with least regard to the simmering discontent among many BJD leaders, she said.

Mishra seems to have touched Pandian’s raw nerve and has incurred his wrath that might lead to her suspension from the party.   

On the other side, there are a litany of senior leaders who are breathing fire at Pandian’s “hold over everything” but they have still not come out openly and keep using metaphors to express their reluctance to abide by Pandian’s diktats.

Talking to this reporter, Arun Sahoo, a senior BJD leader and former cabinet minister in the erstwhile Naveen Patnaik regime, said: “We will fight stridently to save Odisha from being relegated to become a poor state despite the abundance of mineral and natural wealth it has.”

“Where are we after 24 years of rule?” asked Sahoo, adding that “there must have been something muddled in the pattern of running the affairs which we require to introspect.” This was an apparent swipe from Sahoo who has often expressed his annoyance at the present state of BJD under Pandian.

“Take any name that matters in BJD, such as Ranendra Partap Swain, a very senior leader and former BJD minister, who maintains a silence that speaks a lot even after being offended by the Pandian couple once over Patnaik’s health condition being kept a guarded secret”, said Ritik Paramanik, a political analyst.  Swain’s query on his leader’s health was not an act of sin to invite suspension, as announced by Pandian recently, he added. This happened soon after Swain had queried Patnaik's health status.  

Prasanna Acharya, a senior BJD leader, former minister and Member of Parliament (MP), Prasanna Patsani, also a former BJD MP, Ashok Panda, senior BJD leader and cabinet minister, to name a few, are among the league of anti-Pandian people, who, on several occasions, have tacitly expressed their unwillingness to accept the manner in which Patnaik is “being kept aloof.”

“I can say that almost 80% of the original or founding BJD leaders are expressing their exasperations at the manner in which the party is being run by Pandian, but they are just maintaining a studied silence due to their respect for Patnaik,” said Rabi Das, a senior political analyst in Odisha.

Meanwhile, there is buzz here that Patnaik, who is in Delhi, had been taken to America for another health check-up and was accompanied by Pandian, but there is no official statement from BJD yet.

In the ongoing Monsoon session of the Assembly, there was a call by Congress demanding a no-confidence motion against the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) ‘double engine’ government, but the BJD, despite being the main Opposition in the state, chose to keep its stance in abeyance, although the motion has not been admitted yet. 

All said and done, with rumours doing the rounds that Patnaik is unlikely to return to Bhubaneswar in the near future for reasons not known, it is difficult to hazard a guess as to how long a ‘surrogate’ rule prevails in BJD, or will the party see a revolt?

The writer is a freelancer based in Odisha with over 40 years’ experience in the profession.