A section of the leaders of BJD has demanded strong action against the Rajya Sabha MP and national spokesperson Sasmit Patra for creating confusion among the legislators ahead of the voting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in the upper house of Parliament. According to news agency PTI, Patra, also the leader of the BJD in Rajya Sabha, is in the eye of the storm after revealing that he had voted in favour of the contentious bill.
After the BJD announced that it would oppose the bill, and even party MP Muzibulla Khan spoke against it in Rajya Sabha on April 3, Patra put out a post on X before voting, stating that the party MPs could vote as per their conscience and that there was no whip issued to them. This led to confusion among the lawmakers, and several senior leaders have raised the question of whether Patra could change the decision of Naveen Patnaik. Patnaik is the president of the party and is also the chairman of the parliamentary party.
Another Rajya Sabha MP, Debasish Samantray, speaking to reporters, indicated that the real power lies elsewhere, with the chief advisor indicating a close aide of Patnaik. He refused to divulge the name of the chief advisor and said, Everybody knows who he is. The BJD MP also hinted at a big deal between the chief advisor and the BJP. “There has been a big deal. The chief advisor has made some kind of arrangement with the BJP. A bureaucrat who has recently taken voluntary retirement may be part of this deal. You all know who has recently taken VRS. I leave it to your understanding,” Samantray said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
Senior Odisha cadre IAS officer Sujata R Karthikeyan, the wife of BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s former close aide V K Pandian, recently took voluntary retirement from government service. Karthikeyan, a 2000-batch Odisha cadre officer, was serving as the special secretary in Odisha’s finance department. At least two senior BJD leaders – Prafulla Samal and Pratap Jena – have written letters to Patnaik demanding action against Patra for going against the party stand by voting in support of the Waqf Bill, reports PTI.
Both Samal and Jena have written to Patnaik that the BJD continues to fight for the socio-economic development of minority communities, including Muslims. However, instead of winning the trust of the minority communities, such action of Patra has caused damage to the party’s image. Therefore, I urge you to take action as deemed fit, Samal said. Jena has expressed displeasure over the action of Patra and has termed it as anti-party and shocking.
