Naveen Patnaik reveals health condition after Modi's 'conspiracy' attack: 'Could have just...'
A video of Naveen Patnaik's hand shaking and VK Pandian hiding it away from the public view triggered speculations over Odisha CM's health.
Speculations over Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik's health only got intense on Wednesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about it at a rally in the state and doubted if there was any conspiracy behind Naveen Patnaik's rapidly deteriorating health. A video of BJD leader VK Pandian removing Naveen Patnaik's shaking hand from the public eye triggered the speculations. Patnaik countered the rumours about his health and said all Narendra Modi had to do was to pick up the telephone and ring him up to ask about his health.
"He (Narendra Modi) said publicly before that I am his good friend. All he had to do was to pick up a telephone and ring me up and ask me about my health," Naveen Patnaik said adding that a number of people of the BJP have been spreading rumours about his health for the last 10 years.
"Let me assure the Prime Minister that I am in perfect health and I have been campaigning in the state for the last month," the chief minister said.
"My health is perfectly fine. Otherwise, I could not have campaigned amid this scorching heat," Patnaik said.
Odisha is voting for both assembly and Lok Sabha elections from May 13 to June 1 and the result will be announced on June 4.
As PM Modi was addressing election rallies in Mayurbhanj and Balasore, he said there were concerns over Naveen Patnaik's health. Calling it a mystery, PM Modi said his government would constitute a committee to find out the reasons behind the deterioration of Patnaik's health. "Is there a conspiracy behind this? Is the lobby that is currently running the Patnaik government on his behalf responsible for it?" Modi said.
77-year-old Naveen Patnaik will become the longest-serving chief minister in the country if he wins the election this time - surpassing the second of former Sikkim chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling (24 years 165 days).
BJD leader VK Pandian has taken the centrestage in the Odisha assembly election as the BJP opposed his closeness to Patnaik. VK Pandian is a Tamil ex-bureaucrat who joined the BJD last year. A 2000-batch IAS officer of the Odisha cadre, Pandian served as the private secretary of Patnaik. His wife is from Odisha and he shifted his cadre to Odisha after marriage -- he was originally a Punjab cadre officer.