Bhubaneswar, Apr 9 (PTI) Amidst the ongoing flip-flop over supporting the Waqf (Amendment) Bill in Parliament, BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday came out in support of his close aide VK Pandian and clarified that the bureaucrat-turned-politician was not involved in any of the party activities.

Referring to a remark of former BJD MLA Pravat Tripathy, who directly blamed Pandian for the party's defeat in the last election, Patnaik said, "I want to state here clearly that the former legislator was expelled from the party a few years ago because he was indicted in a chit-fund case and spent some years in jail. I want to clarify again that he doesn't belong to the party".

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While issuing a clean chit to Pandian, Patnaik said, "I also want to state clearly that Kartikeyan Pandian, in the past, has done a lot of good work not only for the state, but also for the party. So, he shouldn't be criticised or blamed for anything. Also, he left the party more than 10 months ago and is not involved in any of the party's activities."

Patnaik's remark comes at a time when a section of party workers have been demanding action against those responsible for changing the BJD's official decision of opposing the Waqf Bill in the Rajya Sabha.

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The Bill got support from some of the BJD MPs during the voting, with the party's Rajya Sabha leader Sasmit Patra in a social media post saying that "there was no whip on the members and they could vote as per conscience."

However, a number of BJD leaders targeted Pandian and accused him of having issued instructions to vote as per conscience.

BJD in its Parliamentary Party meeting had earlier decided to oppose the Bill.

In a statement, Patnaik strongly denounced the leaders holding meeting in a hotel instead of ‘Sankha Bhawan', the party's state headquarters.

"I would like to state here that I disapprove of any meetings in hotels held by party members. They have the party office 'Sankha Bhawan', which is a large building where they have been told and should hold their meetings."

Earlier during the day, some senior BJD leaders held a meeting at a city hotel and discussed the impact of BJD's support to Waqf Bill and the persons responsible for the change of party's stand.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)