There were speculations that Naveen wanted Jay Panda to contest from Bargarh, but the latter did not want to leave his favourite Kendrapada. So, he silenced everyone by taking that proactive step. Since then, there has been no love lost between both leaders. Panda’s news channel has changed its stand on various issues and does not hesitate to highlight anti-government issues too, which was not the case earlier.
Jay Panda’s appreciation for Narendra Modi, an unprecedented opinion poll on BJD government a few months ago and many other issues fuelled the speculations that he wanted to become the CM in future. The ‘Sarathi Baba’ episode was seen as an attempt to malign him and his TV empire.
When Panda took the initiative of raising the issue of ‘subsidy at Parliament Canteen’ and sought an end to this practice, some MPs from Kerala raised questions on his business dealings in Odisha. There is little doubt that the Kerala MPs were fed with adequate information by some “insiders”, as they hardly knew anything about Odisha, forget about business dealings. Some top BJD leaders in Kendrapara are on a mission to outwit Jay Panda and corner him politically. It would be interesting to see whether Jay Panda can thwart the efforts and emerge winner or crumble under pressure!