The Naveen Patnaik dispensation in Odisha on Tuesday appointed V.K. Pandian as the chairman of two government programmes and accorded him the rank of a cabinet minister, a day after the Centre had approved the voluntary retirement of the state's all-powerful bureaucrat.

Pandian, a 2000-batch IAS officer, had been the chief minister's private secretary since 2011.

He is now the chairman of 5T (Transformational Initiatives), a governance programme, and Nabin Odisha, a rural development scheme.

Pandian's new roles triggered speculations about his possible entry into state politics.

With the 2024 Assembly elections barely six months away, most people consider that Pandian, who will now directly report to Patnaik, will likely enjoy unbridled powers, controlling both the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the government.

The Congress took a dig at the BJP for the Narendra Modi government's "prompt approval" of Pandian's voluntary retirement.

“The BJD and the BJP are together and that is why Pandian’s voluntary retirement application was approved so quickly. The application was approved within three days. They are two sides of the same coin. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has given him the cabinet rank immediately, showing that everything was pre-planned," said Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Sarat Pattanayak.

Pattanayak said the people of the state would not tolerate the BJD government which was functioning on an outsourcing model.

Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra said the haste with which Pandian's voluntary retirement had been approved clearly hinted at a tacit understanding between the BJP and the BJD.

“With the retirement of Shri V K Pandian, an inglorious chapter of Odisha cadre IAS has come to an end,” OPCC campaign committee chairman and former chief secretary Bijay Patnaik wrote on X.

Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said his party did not like the governance in the state being hijacked by a bureaucrat. “We will fight it tooth and nail,” Samal said.