Final Up to date: March 19, 2024, 16:54 IST
VK Pandian at CNN-News18’s Rising Bharat Summit. (News18)
The 5T secretary stated neither Naveen Patnaik nor PM Modi want an alliance to come back again to energy
“Naveen Patnaik is a good soul and I assumed I ought to do one thing as a disciple to assist him attain out to folks,” stated the Odisha chief minister’s long-time aide and 5T secretary VK Pandian as he shared his ideas on taking the political plunge and a attainable alliance between the BJD and BJP on the Rising India Summit 2024.
“It’s a blessing to work with an excellent soul like him. It’s extra of values. It’s not about an excellent chief doing nice work. Many individuals will do nice work. There could also be nice directors and nice planners. However Naveen Patnaik has an excellent soul. I contemplate it a blessing to be with him for greater than a decade,” he stated.
When requested why the BJD is planning to align with BJP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Pandian stated: “Why does any individual be part of an alliance? Someone joins an alliance to win elections, any individual joins an alliance as a result of they wish to have an effect on electoral math. However here’s a chief minister who’s so standard within the state and wins with 3/4th majority each time.
“Naveen Patnaik doesn’t want an alliance to come back again to serve folks. I’d say the identical factor about PM Narendra Modi. All surveys present he’s going to turn out to be the prime minister once more, and Patnaik shall be chief minister undoubtedly. I feel there are some issues past politics. I see it as a mark of nice statesmanship that two nice leaders are wanting to come back collectively for an excellent trigger. It has no electoral worth for both BJP or BJD.”
Prodded additional, he stated: “BJD doesn’t want the BJP within the state, and BJP doesn’t want us on the Centre… It’s nearly two individuals who share an excellent friendship.”
The difficulty of an alliance between the BJD and BJP got here for dialogue after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Odisha on March 5. The subsequent day, the BJD held a gathering of its senior leaders.
Regardless of not being a part of the ruling coalition, the Biju Janata Dal has voted with the federal government on contentious points such because the Citizenship (Modification) Act, Items, and Providers Tax (GST), demonetisation, and the proposal for ‘one nation, one election’, in addition to the polls for the President’s put up, each in 2017 and 2022.
The 2 events have been allies from 1998 till 2009. Previous to changing into the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik was a union minister in late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s cupboard within the Nineteen Nineties.
