Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday defended his close aide V.K. Pandian and said it was unfortunate to criticise him for the party’s debacle in the election.

He also made it clear that Pandian was not his successor and that the people of Odisha would decide on this particular issue.

The BJD failed to win a single Lok Sabha seat out of 21, while the BJP improved its tally from 8 in 2019 to 20 this time. Besides its spectacular victory in the Lok Sabha, the BJP won 78 Assembly seats and can easily form the government by itself.

Naveen’s statement about his heir comes at a moment when his nephew Arun Patnaik, the son of his elder brother Prem Patnaik, has arrived to stand by his uncle.

Naveen on Saturday said: “In a democracy, you know, you have either to win or lose. Having been defeated after a long time, we must take the verdict of the people gracefully. I have always said the four-and-a-half crore people of Odisha are my family, and I will continue to serve them in whichever way I can.”

Defending Pandian (2000 batch IAS), Naveen said: “It has also come to my notice there has been some criticism of Pandian. This is unfortunate. As an officer, he did excellent work in many fields over the past 10 years, notably helping with the two cyclones and the Covid 19 epidemic in our state. Following his retirement from the bureaucracy, he joined my party and has made significant contributions through his outstanding work. He is a person of integrity and honesty and should be remembered for that.”

On Friday, the party leaders openly expressed their resentment against Pandian in the party office and said it was because of him that the party had suffered the shocking defeat. A Puri-based outfit, Jagannath Sena, even lodged a complaint against Pandian with the Enforcement Directorate.

Naveen also spoke about his health: “There have been some questions on my health. I want to say quite categorically that my health is always fine and continues to be so. You have seen in the last month, I have done a hectic campaigning in the heat and that should be enough to give a verdict on my health,” he said.

During the election campaign, Prime Minister Modi had said that after the BJP government came to power, he would set up a special committee to see why Naveen’s health was deteriorating.