Lok Sabha Elections 2024: All eyes on Odisha as Patnaik's 'natural successor' waits in the wings amid BJP's outsider jeer

The shadow of ‘sana babu’ V K Pandian looms large as ‘bada babu’ Naveen Patnaik begins what may possibly be his last electoral campaign as the supremo of Biju Janata Dal, which has been ruling Odisha for nearly 25 years. Who will inherit the party and the post of the Chief Minister is the question on everyone’s lips with the opposition targeting Patnaik for catapulting an outsider into the corridors of power while Pandian claims he is the “natural successor” and the coastal state is his “karmabhoomi.”

The Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer, who has been working with Patnaik since 2011 and was one of the backroom boys in his 2014 and 2019 electoral campaigns, is the de-facto number two of BJD whose approval is essential to get an audience with the Chief Minister. The talks of Pandian being the heir apparent became louder after Patnaik decided to contest in two assembly seats – Hinjli and Kantabanji – amidst speculations that he may vacate one for his trusted lieutenant.

“I'm a natural successor to all the great values he (Patnaik) possesses, whether it's his impeccable integrity, his commitment to people of Odisha, his hard work, punctuality, sincerity, everything," the bureaucrat-turned-politician said in an interview to PTI. "Every person in Odisha and perhaps in the country should try to succeed his values. That's the kind of successor of Naveen Babu I see myself as and I'm proud of it. I try to emulate whatever he is doing."

On BJP's charge of him being an outsider, Pandian said, "BJP calls me an outsider for their own political reasons, people of Odisha don't say that." The 50 year old had recently quit the service and joined BJD, fuelling the inheritance speculations.

The 2000-batch officer was initially allotted Punjab cadre, but a few months into the service, he switched to Odisha after marrying fellow IAS officer Sujata Rout – now Sujata R Kartikheyan – who has been transferred by the Election Commission to a non-public facing department following the allegations of violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

With the eastern state heading for a twin poll for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats, BJP has sharpened its claws on the Pandian issue, relentlessly flagging on how the state should be run by someone from the state and not by an outsider.

"Outsiders' in Odisha CM's office trying to capture the state, setting a dangerous trend," said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. “A dormant government is functioning in Odisha with a 'sana babu' hijacking the governance system and people's mandate,” noted Aparajita Sarangi, BJP national spokesperson and Bhubaneswar MP.

“Since the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020, the Chief Minister has not gone to the secretariat regularly. He is hardly seen in public. Sana babu cannot take the place of bada babu (Patnaik), who has the people's mandate," she added.

Meanwhile, Pandian, a star campaigner for the party, is touring the state mostly in a helicopter, often without the local MPs and MLAs, who are unhappy on his spectacular rise, but have kept mum. There are barely any protests or public statements by local leaders who don’t want to move out of his good books.

There are also murmurs of a BJP-BJD friendly fight to keep Congress out of the equation as the two parties explored the possibility of forming an alliance – Pandian was one of the architects of the deal - days before the poll dates were announced. A former ally of the saffron party, the BJD bailed out the Narendra Modi government in the Parliament many times while passing contentious legislations.

The Naveen Patnaik government also faces multiple charges of corruption and people who lost their houses in Cyclone Fani in 2019 blame the government for not being able to provide them shelters even after four years. There are anti-incumbency factors too. But the Pandian issue eclipses everything else with people waiting with bated breath to know if the Tamil bureaucrat will be the next king of Kalinga.