Bhubaneswar/Cuttack: Speculation about Baijayant Panda joining BJP got fuelled with the Kendrapara MP attending a programme hosted by senior BJP leader Samir Dey in Cuttack on Saturday.
Baijayant quit BJD, of which he claimed to be a founding member, on May 28 on grounds that the regional party had drifted from its ideology. He had further accused the party of humiliating him.
In a letter addressed to BJD president Naveen Patnaik, Baijayant said he was pained that most BJD leaders, including the chief minister, did not show up at his place to pay last respects to his father and industrialist Bansidhar Panda, who died on May 22.
On June 12, he had resigned as a member of Lok Sabha but the speaker is yet to accept it.
Baijayant was a Rajya Sabha member of the BJD from 2000 to 2006 and again from 2006 to 2009. He won Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat twice on BJD ticket in 2009 and again in 2014.
There have been talks about him joining the saffron party since his suspension from primary membership of BJD for “anti-party” activities on January 24. He was seen hobnobbing with the BJP for the last few months and the suspension supposedly had cleared the decks for him.
Replying to this speculation, Odisha state BJP president Basanta Panda had earlier said that they are ready to welcome any ‘good person’ who subscribes to the ideology of the BJP and accepts the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president Amit Shah.
In a recent interview to a television channel, Baijayant said it was his job to keep good relations with all national parties, especially with the one in power at the Centre, for Odisha’s interest and denied acting at the behest of BJP.
On supporting BJP’s policies, the Kendrapara MP said that he had been advocating Aadhaar, GST and anti-VVIP culture for over a decade and it would have been hypocritically on his part to back out because these were implemented by another party.
Baijayant had signed off saying that he is considering all political and non-political options, while refusing to divulge more about the road ahead for him.
Political analysts feel it’s a matter of time before Baijayant formally joins the BJP. He is buying time to informally taste the waters and trying to build his clout within the state BJP by meeting senior leaders, including those who are believed not to enjoy best of terms with Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
