Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday spoke to former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who is undergoing treatment at a private hospital for dehydration, and enquired about his health.
The Prime Minister wished Patnaik a speedy recovery and suggested that the BJD supremo should take rest for some time.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to Naveen Patnaik today. He enquired about his health and wished him a speedy recovery,” the statement, issued by the office of the leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly, said.
Modi also invited the Naveen to visit Delhi soon, it said.
Modi enjoys a personal rapport with Naveen. The 2024 election was the first occasion when he directly attacked Naveen and also targeted his aide V.K. Pandian.
It was on Modi’s request that Naveen sent Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to Rajya Sabha twice with his party’s support.
On Tuesday, defence minister Rajnath Singh had spoken to Naveen and enquired about his health. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge also spoke to the BJD supremo on Wednesday evening. With the vice-presidential election only a few weeks away, all eyes are on Naveen.
While the NDA would like Naveen to support its candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan, the BJD chief is keeping his cards close to the chest.
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said: “Many leaders from different parties call Naveen babu regularly.”
The vice-presidential election is due on September 9.
The BJD, which claims to maintain equidistance from both the Congress and the NDA, has often supported the BJP at crucial times. Even during the passage of the waqf bill, it had asked its Rajya Sabha members to vote according to their conscience, making things easy for the BJP-led NDA. Of the seven Rajya Sabha members of BJD, five had voted in favour of the bill.
However, everyone is curious to know whether this time Naveen would ask his Rajya Sabha members to vote for the NDA candidate or oppose its choice and support the Opposition’s candidate, former Supreme Court judge B. Sudershan Reddy. It is also to be seen whether BJD Rajya Sabha members would participate in the election or abstain from voting.
Currently, the BJD holds seven seats in the Rajya Sabha but has no representation in the Lok Sabha.
In a related development, the BJD on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the director general of police about the defamatory posts against Naveen Patnaik and his close associates — V.K. Pandian and his wife Sujata Karthikeyan.
“These posts have deeply offended the people of Odisha who love Naveen Patnaik. The posts were so insensitive, sub-standard and in poor taste that I, as head of the BJD IT and social media cell, have been compelled to lodge a strong protest and complaint to take immediate action to not only remove these posts immediately, but also apprehend the handlers of these pages and initiate immediate criminal action against them, “said former MP Amar Patnaik.
He further added: “If no action is taken immediately, I and the people of Odisha would be convinced that these posts were initiated and disseminated at the behest of the BJP by fake handles to cause criminal defamation, public outrage and disharmony and mental stress not only to the leaders in the video, but, in fact, to the people of Odisha
at large.”