Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader Prasanna Patasani Tuesday blamed former bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian for the fall of the 24- year-old Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in Odisha, and asserted that he was forced to leave BJD because of the former. Patasani, who was elected to Lok Sabha and state Assembly several times on BJD ticket, also claimed that the Naveen Patnaikled party is unlikely to return to power in Odisha till Pandian remains in the party. “I had to quit BJD because of VK Pandian, and the popular government led by Naveen Patnaik was unseated due to him. It hurts when a person like me — a founding member — is forced to quit the party. After quitting BJD, I joined the BJP,” Patasani said. Patasani had severed his links with BJD and joined the BJP in June this year after being denied a party ticket to contest the Lok Sabha seat from Bhubaneswar constituency from where he was elected multiple times, including in 2004, 2009 and 2014. He was denied the BJD ticket in 2019 also. The veteran leader said this while supporting six-time BJD MLA Amar Prasad Satpathy who Monday said that he was no more in the BJD. As Pandian was unavailable for comments, BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty rejected the allegation of Patasani. “Patasani is a respectable senior leader. He was denied a ticket because he wanted BJD tickets for four members of his family. The other day, he had praised the same man (Pandian) whom he is blaming now.” Mohanty also showed a video clip of Patasani praising Pandian and BJD president Naveen Patnaik before elections. On Patasani’s allegation that Pandian still wields considerable influence in the regional party, Mohanty without taking any name, said, “One person had openly said to have taken ‘sanyas’.” He was alluding to Pandian quitting active politics following BJD’s drubbing in both the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls earlier this year. During the campaign, the former bureaucrat had asserted that he would take ‘sanyas’ from politics if party president Patnaik did not become the chief minister of Odisha for the sixth consecutive time after the Assembly elections.
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