New Delhi: Bureaucrat-turned-politician V.K. Pandian has announced his decision to quit active politics after the Biju Janata Dal suffered a drubbing in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the Odisha assembly elections, which ended over two decades of the Naveen Patnaik government.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to form its first state government in Odisha, where it has won 78 of the 147 seats in the assembly, with the incumbent BJD down to 51 seats, and the Congress winning 14. With the BJP’s victory, Patnaik’s rule that has continued since 2000 has come to an end. While the state has voted in favour of the BJP in the 2014 and 2019 elections, in the 2024 elections the BJP has won 19 of the state’s 20 parliamentary seats, and the Congress one, with the BJD failing to win a single seat.
In a video message on Sunday (June 9) Pandian who was seen as Patnaik’s successor announced his decision to step down following the losses suffered by the BJD.
“I left the IAS and joined the Biju Janata Dal to assist my mentor Shri Naveen Patnaik. My only intent was to help people as anyone would do for his mentor or family. I would like to set straight certain perceptions and narratives. Perhaps it is my shortcoming that I have not been able to counter these narratives at the right time. I reiterate that I came to politics to help Shri Naveen Patnaik ahead of gruelling elections and I had no desire for a specific political post or power. Therefore I was neither a candidate nor was I holding any post in Biju Janata Dal,” he said.
https://t.co/s5H9ZVL0Jp pic.twitter.com/9GGgR3HneS
— Gourav Kumar Das (@GouravKuDas) June 9, 2024
Pandian said that his biggest earning has been the love and affection of the people of Odisha.
“Now consciously I decide to withdraw myself from active politics. I am sorry if I have hurt anyone on this journey. I am sorry if this campaign narrative against me has had a part to play in Biju Janata Dal’s loss. I apologise to the entire Biju parivaar.”
An IAS officer of the 2000 batch who served as private secretary to CM Patnaik for over two decades, Pandian took voluntary retirement in October 2023. He joined the BJD thereafter and was given the rank of a cabinet minister.
Pandian’s elevation had angered the party’s rank and file while his prominence as a star campaigner had made him a target for the BJP which assailed him for not being from Odisha. Pandian is from Tamil Nadu.
Pandian’s decision to move away from active politics comes a day after Patnaik said in a statement that the criticism that the latter had received was “unfortunate” and that he had done an “excellent job.”
“There has been some criticism of Pandian. This is unfortunate. He joined the party and has not held any post. He did not contest the elections from any constituency. I have always clearly said when asked about my successor that it is not Pandian. I repeat again that the people of Odisha will decide my successor,” Patnaik said to PTI.
“As an officer, he (Pandian) did an excellent job in different fields in the last 10 years, be it during two cyclones or the Covid-19 pandemic. After this good work, he retired from the bureaucracy and joined the BJD and contributed largely by doing an excellent work. He is a person of integrity and honesty and should be remembered for that.”
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
