Odisha: BJD Plays It Safe On Jagdeep Dhankhar No Trust Motion

Bhubaneswar: Days after remaining non-committal amid fear of potential defections to BJP, the main Opposition party in Odisha, BJD, on Sunday denied supporting the no-trust motion against Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar.

“We have not signed the petition against the Rajya Sabha Chairman. None from INDI alliance have contacted us seeking our support for the no-trust motion. So it’s certain that we would not vote in its favour. Our party supremo has also not asked us to support the motion against him,” BJD’s Rajya Sabha member Niranjan Bishi told a local channel.

This is a departure from the BJD’s June stand to stop lending “issue-based support” to BJP and play the role of a “strong and vibrant” Opposition in Parliament after having bailed out the Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance government on several contentious issues in the last 10 years. Naveen Patnaik had announced this after the regional party not only drew a complete blank in the Lok Sabha elections for the first time in over a decade but also ceded power to the BJP in the state.

In 2022, the regional party had also supported Dhankar’s candidature for the vice president post.

However, in the last five and half months, the BJD’s strengthen in Rayja Sabha has diminished to seven with the exit of Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar, who were re-elected to the Upper House after switching sides to BJP. Rubbing salt to the wound, Pallahara MLA Ashok Mohanty recently claimed that two more BJD MPs, a senior member and a youth leader, may also quit the regional party and join the BJP.

On December 10, BJD president Naveen Patnaik said that the party is yet to decide on whether to support the INDIA bloc’s no-confidence motion against Dhankhar.

Later, picture of 5 BJD MPs with the Vice-President went viral.

Speaking to ANI, BJD MP Sasmit Patra said that it is an INDIA bloc-backed resolution and BJD is not part of the alliance. “Therefore we are completely neutral on this issue. It is the issue that we are not connected with… The question of talking about it or becoming a party to it does not arise,” he said.

On December 10, the Opposition INDIA bloc submitted a notice to move a no-confidence or impeachment resolution against Dhankhar to the Secretary General of the Upper House over his alleged partisan nature while running the Upper House.