Bhubaneswar, Sep 12: Biju Janata Dal on Tuesday removed party’s Khandapara MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik from Vice President post.
An order issued by the BJD President Naveen Patnaik said “Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Vice President , Biju Janata Dal is hereby removed from the post of Vice-President with immediate effect’’.
No reason for Soumya Ranjan Patnaik’s removal has been mentioned in the order.
Recently three senior BJD leaders including a minister slammed Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik for criticising the party in his writings and asked him to resign. However, Patnaik stated that whatever he is saying is only for the betterment of the party and nobody could dictate to him to resign as the “Biju Janata Dal doesn’t belong to any individual”.
Patnaik is at loggerheads with the BJD leadership for the last few days after he criticised the functioning of 5T Secretary V K Pandian, who is also the secretary to the Chief Minister, and the state of affairs in the party in the editorial page of his Odia daily” Sambad”.
Soumya Ranjan Patnaik has been opposing Pandian for allegedly indulging in politics and even questioned the Chief Minister’s decision allowing Pandian to visit various places , address public meetings, receive grievances from the people and give orders to officials to solve the problems.
BJP and Congress were also opposing the 5T Secretary and asked Pandian to resign from his post if he is keen to enter politics.
