Face of Naveen’s Mission Shakti—Sujata triggers buzz in BJD

New Delhi: Sujata Rout Karthikeyan, former Odisha cadre senior IAS officer and wife of once powerful Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Naveen Patnaik’s close aide V. K. Pandian joined the party today, which is being seen in the state’s political circles as part of BJD’s succession plan.

Despite many within the BJD holding Pandian responsible for the party’s humiliating defeat at the hands of BJP in the 2024 Assembly elections, Naveen Patnaik has stuck with him. Pandian continues to be Patnaik’s right hand and also manages the party’s affairs in the background.

Also, Pandian is a Tamilian and might not be acceptable to Odiyas. “That is why Sujata, who is an Odiya from Kendrapara, has been brought in,” a state BJP leader, who did not want to be named, told ThePrint.

Karthikeyan and Pandian were often referred to as the power couple of Odisha during the BJD’s rule. While Karthikeyan is Odiya, her husband is from Tamil Nadu. Pandian, a 2000 cadre IAS, took voluntary retirement in September 2023, just ahead of the Assembly elections in the state and formally joined the BJD.

Pandian was involved in all aspects of the electioneering process, from selection of candidates to picking up issues to highlight as Patnaik sought a sixth term in office. In fact, the BJD had named him one of their star campaigners.

BJD leaders said that Pandian became a kind of shadow CM, wielding immense power, both in the party and bureaucracy and that it was his unbridled power that alienated not only party workers but people on the ground, leading to BJD’s humiliating drubbing.

Ahead of the elections, the opposition BJP made Pandian a big election issue. They targeted the Patnaik-led BJD government for compromising Odisha’s ‘asmita’ (pride) by giving unlimited power to a former IAS belonging to Tamil Nadu.

A second BJD leader said Sujata’s joining the party comes at an opportune time as the BJD is going through an internal churn following its defeat. “Since the party’s defeat, half a dozen BJD MPs and several mid-level leaders have switched to BJP. The party seems to have lost direction,” the leader said on condition of anonymity.

Karthikeyan took voluntary retirement from the IAS in March 2025. Ever since there has been talk of her joining the BJD. “For a long time this has been talked about in political circles as BJD’s succession plan,” the second leader said.

Face of BJD government’s Mission Shakti

A 2000 cadre IAS officer, Karthikeyan was considered one of the most powerful civil servants in the state before the rout of the BJD in 2024 assembly elections.

A post-graduate in international politics from JNU, Karthikeyan started her bureaucratic career as a sub-collector of Nabarangpur. She was also the first woman collector of Cuttack district. As collector of Naxal-hit Sundargarh, she introduced eggs in the midday meal scheme in all government schools in the district.

She became the face of ‘Mission Shakti’, the erstwhile Naveen Patnaik government’s signature scheme to empower lakhs of women in the state through a network of self-help groups (SHGs). An efficient officer, she was credited for building a vast network of SHGs in the state, transforming the lives rural women. That she had the backing of former CM Patnaik helped her deliver.

Her trouble started just ahead of the 2024 Assembly elections, when the Election Commission of India (ECI) ordered her transfer from the Mission Shakti programme under the Women and Child Development Department, where she was the commissioner-cum-secretary.

The transfer order came soon after a BJP delegation met the ECI and submitted a memorandum seeking Karthikeyan’s transfer for “misuse of public office”. The BJP had alleged that she was using her position as Mission Shakti head to influence women self-help groups to vote for BJD.

Soon after the BJD lost power and the Mohan Manjhi-led BJP government took charge, Karthikeyan, who was a special secretary in the finance department, went on six months’ childcare leave. She resumed her duties in November 2024 after her application seeking a six-month extension of leave was rejected by the Majhi government.

The 50-year-old was also one of the driving forces behind Millet Shakti, a joint initiative under the Odisha Millets Mission and Mission Shakti to empower women entrepreneurs and promote millet consumption through SHGs. Millet cafes run by women SHGs have mushroomed across Odisha, including in far-flung districts like Kalahandi.

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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