Veteran BJD Leader Targets Naveen Patnaik’s Former Aide, Flags Party’s Leadership Crisis

Bhubaneswar: A senior leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday publicly trained his guns on former chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s once-influential aide V.K. Pandian, reopening uncomfortable questions about the party’s internal power structure and the role it played in the BJD’s recent electoral defeat.

Badri Narayan Patra, a veteran leader and former minister, on Monday asserted that Patnaik remains Odisha’s most popular political figure and suggested that the party paid a heavy price when “others tried to act like him” during the election campaign. While Patra did not name Pandian directly, his remarks were widely interpreted within party circles as a pointed attack on the former 5T chairman and other leaders who emerged as the public face of the campaign in Naveen Patnaik’s absence.

“People were looking for Naveen, but instead found substitutes. By keeping Naveen away from the people, they weakened him—and the party,” Patra said, alleging that some leaders travelled by helicopter, addressed rallies from pandals, and projected themselves as alternatives to the BJD supremo.

The remarks underscore a growing narrative within the BJD that the party’s defeat was less about voter fatigue and more about strategic miscalculations, particularly the limited public presence of Patnaik, who has dominated Odisha politics for over two decades. Patra claimed that the electorate effectively conveyed a message of “no Naveen, no vote”, arguing that the BJD’s vote share suffered precisely because Patnaik did not actively campaign.

“Our party secured more votes than the BJP, yet lost. That itself proves Naveen Patnaik’s popularity,” Patra said, contending that the outcome would have been different had the former chief minister taken to the field.

The comments come at a sensitive moment for the BJD, which is grappling with its first spell in opposition after 24 years in power. Patra acknowledged that the party is going through a “difficult phase” but said efforts were underway to reorganise the organisation, reassert its ideological direction, and strengthen its leadership. He also hinted at internal corrective measures, saying steps were being taken to sideline those “creating obstacles within the party”.

The internal debate has exposed fault lines between leaders seeking a return to a Naveen-centric mass politics model and those associated with the party’s technocratic, centralised style of governance in its later years.

Reacting to the unfolding war of words, BJD MLA Ganeswar Behera sought to downplay the discord, saying internal differences were natural in any political party. “There is no issue if leaders come together. Every party has its own problems,” he said, while distancing himself from factional meetings, citing constituency work.