At a time when the yearning to change the 24-year-old regime was attributed to Biju Janta Dal’s debacle in 2024 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Tuesday said it was the issue of Odia Asmita (pride) that accumulated public anger and stoked the anti-incumbency sentiments across Odisha.
People could see through the ambition of V. K. Pandian, a Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer and close aide of outgoing Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to rule the State from behind the scenes, said BJP leaders.
President of BJP’s Odisha unit, Manmohan Samal was the first to launch the frontal attack on the regional party, stating that Odia Asmita would be the main poll plank of the party. He was referring to the domination of Mr. Pandian in Odisha.
The former 2000-batch IAS officer, known to be a backroom boy diligently performing all bureaucratic works in Chief Minister’s Office after his posting as private secretary to Mr. Patnaik in 2011, gradually exerted his influence both in official functioning and party affairs. Subsequently, he enjoyed unhindered access to the Chief Minister’s residence.
Photographs of the former bureaucrat standing behind Mr. Patnaik in informal attire, overseeing his morning exercise and sharing the dining table with him and other dignitaries reinforced the public perception that no one enjoyed more intimacy with the power centre than him; nothing moved in Odisha without his approval.
In 2019, a new initiative 5T (teamwork, technology, transparency, transformation and time limit), a benchmark deciding the performance of government officials and project execution, was launched in Odisha. Mr. Pandian headed the initiative, accruing supreme administrative power to review projects cutting across all departments.
The turning point came in 2023 when he started flying down to every district to hold grievance redressal sessions. The Opposition started to question a mid-level bureaucrat’s overarching power and extravagant spending in addressing staged events. The public spectacle of him occupying the stage alone while people’s representatives were being reduced to the role of volunteers did not go down well in public.
Senior BJD leaders, including Cabinet Ministers, were seen clearing traffic so that Mr. Pandian’s vehicle could smoothly move nearer to the venue. Though BJD leaders competed among themselves to prove their loyalty to the former bureaucrat, people considered it an exhibition of arrogant power. The close aide of Mr. Patnaik would use helicopters to travel even a small distance of 30 km.
In the run-up to elections, BJD had issued a list of 40 star campaigners. However, during the campaign trail, only Mr. Patnaik and Mr. Pandian were seen canvassing support for BJD.
A senior BJP leader said the former bureaucrat’s campaign proved to be a blessing in disguise. The more he campaigned, the more votes BJD started losing, he said.
The hectic campaign saw Mr. Pandian touring more districts than Mr. Patnaik. On the stage, the speech time allotted to Mr. Pandian was higher than that of Mr. Patnaik, who enjoyed unparalleled popularity in Odisha during his 24 years of rule and was now starting to be viewed as ordinary politician.
Moreover, the number of interviews Mr. Pandian gave to media outlets during the campaign had vastly outnumbered that of the five-time Chief Minister. It triggered a discussion about the deteriorating health of Mr. Patnaik. In one of the meetings, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raked up the health issue, which appeared to have worked in the favour of the saffron party.
None of the public speeches delivered by top BJP leaders, including Mr. Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah or Assam Chief Minister Himant Biswa Sarma, ended without reference to Mr. Pandian.
Published - June 05, 2024 04:37 am IST
