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Monday, March 16, 2026
TopicVK Pandian

Topic: VK Pandian

10 months in Opposition, how Naveen Patnaik is facing challenge to his leadership

Since BJD's 2024 defeat in the state & LS elections, leaders have been questioning Patnaik over VK Pandian's role, party's policy in its current Oppn position & now, the waqf bill U-turn.

One half of Odisha’s IAS power couple & face of BJD’s Mission Shakti, Sujata Karthikeyan takes VRS

Trouble started for her just ahead of assembly polls last year, when ECI ordered her transfer from Mission Shakti after BJP delegation sought the same for 'misuse of public office'.

‘Lobby behind Naveen Patnaik’s failing health,’ charges Modi. ‘Call me,’ retorts Odisha CM

‘Friends’ till March this year, Modi and Patnaik became sharply critical of each other after a seat-sharing deal between BJP and BJD fell through.

Why ex-IAS officer VK Pandian, Odisha CM Patnaik’s confidant, is in Modi-Shah crosshairs

BJP has made a poll plank of civil servant-turned-politician Pandian’s Tamil origin.

Out of BJD posters to now star campaigner, why Odia voters are talking about Naveen aide Pandian

Bhubaneswar/Kendrapara/Sambalpur: In November last year, when V.K. Pandian — former private secretary to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and a key confidant — quit...

‘No light at the end of the tunnel?’ & Odisha model of governance

The best cartoons of the day, chosen by the editors at ThePrint.

Odisha is becoming an IAS state. Patnaik-Pandian combo is changing grammar of governance

CM Naveen Patnaik has receded into the background, while a band of swashbuckling IAS officers has taken centrestage not only in managing state affairs but also in political events.

On Camera

Gulf conflict pushes Dubai diamond traders to eye Surat for rough stone auctions. But there are hurdles

Industry leaders say India’s complicated customs process and GST levies are deterrents for traders to come to Surat for auctions.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.