Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday once again backed BJD leader and his key aide VK Pandian, saying the bureaucrat-turned-politician has served the state and party with utmost dedication efficiency and integrity, and rejected a media report of a split in his party as “completely false, motivated, defamatory and malicious”.
Patnaik was reacting to the report that claimed that he had asked Union Home Minister Amit Shah “not to entertain” Pandian.
“This is completely false, motivated, defamatory and malicious. As I have stated earlier Pandian has served the state and party with utmost dedication, efficiency and integrity and is known and respected for the same,” he said in a post on X.
The saffron party also rejected a claim made in the report that Patnaik had assured Shah of BJD’s support in the Rajya Sabha where the NDA lacks a majority.
BJP vice president Biranchi Narayan Tripathy said, “BJP doesn’t need any help from the BJD as it has the majority in the state and at the Centre.”
After the BJD’s debacle in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Patnaik had said that Pandian is a person of integrity and honesty and should be remembered for that.
A section of BJD leaders had blamed Pandian, a bureaucrat-turned-politician from Tamil Nadu, for the party’s poor performance in the polls.
PTI