BJP leader Patasani blames Pandian for fall of BJD government in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader Prasanna Patasani Tuesday blamed former bureaucrat VK Pandian for the fall of the 24-year-old Biju Janta Dal government in Odisha, and asserted that he was forced to leave the BJD because of him.

Patasani, who was elected to Lok Sabha and state assembly several times on BJD tickets, also claimed that the Naveen Patnaik-led party is unlikely to return to power in Odisha till Pandian remains in the party.

“I had to quit BJD because of V K Pandian and the popular government led by Naveen Patnaik was unseated due to him. It hurts when a person like me who was a founding member is forced to quit the party. After quitting BJD, I joined the BJP,” Patasani said.

Patasani had severed his link with the BJD and joined the BJP in June this year after being denied a party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha seat from Bhubaneswar from where he was elected in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. He was denied the BJD ticket in 2019 also.

The veteran leader said this while supporting six-time BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy who on Monday said that he was no more in the BJD, the party of which he was a founder member.

When Pandian was not available for comment, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty rejected the allegation of Patasani.

“Patasani is a respectable senior leader. He was denied a ticket because he wanted BJD tickets for four members of his family. The other day, he had praised the same man (Pandian) whom he is blaming now.” Mohanty also showed a video clip of Patasani praising Pandian and BJD president Naveen Patnaik before elections.

On Patasani’s allegation that Pandian still wields considerable influence in the regional party, Mohanty without taking any name, said: “One person had openly said to have taken sanyas.” He was alluding to Pandian quitting active politics following the BJD’s drubbing in both the assembly and Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

During the campaign, the former bureaucrat had asserted that he would take sanyas from politics if party president Patnaik did not become the chief minister of Odisha for the sixth consecutive time after the assembly elections.

“He (Pandian) has no physical presence in any activities of the party. His name is being dragged with the intention of making your (Patasani’s) political life viable,” Mohanty said.