New Delhi: Putting all speculation to rest, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday categorically ruled out his close confidante, former IAS officer V.K. Pandian, as his successor.
In an interview to news agency ANI, when asked whether he was grooming Pandian as his successor, the CM said: “I can’t understand these exaggerations. You may have noticed that he’s not standing in the elections… he’s not my successor and I see all of these as exaggerations of all sorts.”
Patnaik also said that Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), which he heads, would “judge and take an appropriate position” when needed, when asked if the party would support the BJP at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections this time too, like it did in 2019.
When asked if the differences between the BJD and BJP had grown too big to be mended, Patnaik said he would let the future decide the course of action. “Let us see what the position will be in the future. That will be the judge of future events,” Patnaik said.
‘Successor would be decided by the people’
In the interview, Patnaik has said that his successor would be decided by the people of Odisha. “That’s the natural result…,” he said.
Pandian, a Tamilian, was the private secretary to the CM before he quit the Indian Administrative Service last November to join the BJD.
As chief strategist for the BJD and a star campaigner this election season, Pandian’s growing role in the Odisha government and party has led many in the state to project him as the CM’s potential successor.
Patnaik’s ruling out of Pandian as his successor comes at a time when the opposition BJP has made it an election issue and is targeting the BJD government for allegedly compromising Odisha’s asmita (pride) by giving unbridled power to a former IAS officer belonging to Tamil Nadu.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah, among other senior BJP leaders, have attacked Pandian for “running the government in Odisha from behind the scenes”.
On Wednesday, addressing an election rally in the state’s Baripada, Modi alluded to Pandian without naming him when he said that a “lobby” was behind the Odisha CM’s sudden deterioration of health.
Pandian had started working with Patnaik as his private secretary in 2011. He has been with Patnaik for over a decade and is today considered the most trusted lieutenant of the septuagenarian.
Pandian’s growing influence over Patnaik has apparently been met with resentment from the BJD old guard, forcing some leaders to part ways.
In the interview to ANI Thursday, the Odisha CM asserted that the BJD would have a handsome result in the assembly elections.
“We will form a solid government in the state and in Parliament, we will have a very good majority,” Patnaik said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: Why ex-IAS officer VK Pandian, Odisha CM Patnaik’s confidant, is in Modi-Shah crosshairs