 "naveen patnaik")
Will he or won’t he? That’s no more the question.
Government employees, ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leaders, and service associations have queued up in Naveen Niwas, the residence of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, to congratulate his long-time private secretary V K Pandian following his new assignment.
The Tamil Nadu-born bureaucrat last month took voluntary retirement and assumed a new role as cabinet-rank minister, ending speculation about his desire to have a more formal role in electoral politics.
Pandian is now chairman of the state government’s 5T (good governance model) and ‘Ama Odisha, Nabin Odisha’ (Our Odisha, New Odisha), and reports to Patnaik, taking him to top position at the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO).
Observers see a chronology in the 2000-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer’s tryst with politics.
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Over the past six months until September, Pandian toured the state as 5T secretary, utilising helicopters sponsored by the state government, connecting with people. The 5T initiative is an umbrella programme aimed at speedily completing projects.
Pandian’s tour gathered 57,085 grievances, particularly from rural Odisha, which has around 80 per cent of the state’s population. The CMO said 65.71 per cent of the grievances had been redressed. He also reviewed drinking water and electricity-related issues.
A study by the Association for Democratic Reforms conducted ahead of the 2019 elections found drinking water (43 per cent), water for agriculture (43 per cent), and better employment opportunities (41 per cent) as three priorities for voters in rural Odisha.
“From water supply to agriculture, and road connectivity, the government is focusing on rural Odisha, a significant vote base for the ruling party,” said Brahmananda Satpathy, senior political science professor.
In the 2022 three-tier panchayat elections, the BJD secured 766 of the 852 zilla parishad seats, forming councils across all 30 districts.
“Pandian’s visits have indicated his close association with the chief minister and his emergence as a key power centre,” said Prasanna Mishra, a retired IAS officer who writes on social and economic issues.
Media reports suggest Pandian’s bureaucrat wife, Sujata R Karthikeyan, who heads the Mission Shakti department, has also sought voluntary retirement, prompting speculations of her joining politics.
Under the Mission Shakti scheme, more than 7 million women have formed over 600,000 self-help groups (SHGs), also a key vote bank for the BJD. The state provides interest-free loans of up to Rs 5 lakh to SHGs. The 2023-24 Budget proposed providing business opportunities worth Rs 10,000 crore to SHGs in five years to convert them into small and medium enterprises. Last month, Patnaik launched the Mission Shakti Scooter Yojna, which offers 200,000 women interest-free loans up to Rs 1 lakh to buy two-wheelers.
Bureaucrat-turned-Congress leader Bijay Patnaik, however, dismissed the scheme as a political gimmick. The state goes to the polls simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in May next year.
In October, the government launched the Rs 4,000 crore Nabin Odisha scheme with the logo containing the ‘conch’, which incidentally is the BJD’s party symbol. The programme, with Pandian at the helm of affairs, is a model of the government’s Rs 1,250 crore “Ama Gaon, Ama Bikash” (our village, our development) initiative, launched in 2018-19, which helped the party in mobilising its vote bank in the last general elections. Every panchayat will get an assistance of Rs 50 lakh for preserving places of worship, enhancing historically significant sites, and improving rural infrastructure and digital access.
Opposition leaders termed the scheme a ploy to fund election campaigning.
Meanwhile, BJP MP and former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi told reporters: “Pandian has secured the rank of cabinet minister for soft-landing in politics.”
Satpathy said: “Pandian’s acceptance among people suggests he is there to finish the unfinished agenda of Patnaik.”
Now that there is no baggage of being a civil servant, Mishra saw Patnaik’s increased dependence on Pandian for his party’s political affairs.
Pandian has also received the attention of his well-wishers back in Tamil Nadu. Actor Kamal Haasan wrote on X: “Thiru V K Pandian, as an IAS officer, your honest and diligent administration epitomised the motto of your service — ‘Excellence in Action’. Under the capable leadership of Hon. CM Thiru Naveen Patnaik Ji, Odisha will further thrive and prosper, with such a formidable team at the helm of state affairs. I wish you the best as Chairman of 5T Initiative and Nabin Odisha.”
