Bhubaneswar: While many believe bureaucrat turned Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Kartik Pandian to be the major reason behind the party’s debacle at the recently concluded hustings, party president Naveen Patnaik has come out in defence of the former.
“It has come to my notice there’s been some criticism of Mr Pandian. This is unfortunate. He did excellent work in many fields in the last ten years helping with the two cyclones and with the Covid-19 epidemic in our state. After this good work, he retired from the bureaucracy and joined my party and has contributed largely to that by doing excellent work. He is a person of integrity and honesty and should be remembered for all that,” clarified Patnaik in defence of Pandian while speaking to the media.
Patnaik said that Pandian had helped in health, education, sports and temple restoration programmes of his government.
Pandian joined the party and has not held any post nor did he fight in the elections from any constituency, Patnaik added.
Reiterating that the people of Odisha will decide on his successor the BJD supremo said, “I have always clearly said when being asked about my successor. I have said clearly that it is not Mr Pandian and I repeat it again that people of Odisha will decide my successor “.
On being asked to comment on the debacle of his party at the recently concluded elections, Patnaik said that it is in the hands of the people in democracy, either you win or you lose.
“So having been defeated after a long time we must always take the verdict of the people gracefully. I have always said the 4.5 crore people of Odisha is my family and I will continue to serve them in whichever way I can,” the BJD patriarch stated.
