The Election Commission of India Thursday ordered the transfer of Sujata R Karthikeyan, wife of former IAS officer and BJD leader V K Pandian, from the Mission Shakti department to a “non-public facing department” with immediate effect, ECI sources said.
The ECI action followed a complaint of alleged misuse of public office, lodged by the BJP.
Under Mission Shakti, the Odisha government has formed over six lakh self-help groups (SHGs) comprising around 70 lakh women.
After winning the 2019 polls for the fifth time, the Patnaik government approved a proposal to give government businesses worth Rs 1,000 crore to the women SHGs.
The complaint adds that functionaries of the Mission Shakti department have been compelling and coercing SHGs with the threat of stopping financial benefits so women vote for the BJD.
The Election Commission of India Thursday ordered the transfer of Sujata R Karthikeyan, wife of former IAS officer and BJD leader V K Pandian, from the Mission Shakti department to a “non-public facing department” with immediate effect, ECI sources said.
The ECI action followed a complaint of alleged misuse of public office, lodged by the BJP.
“It is extremely unfortunate that the serving IAS officer has given a go-bye to professionalism and is actively indulging as an agent of the BJD because of the influence of her husband on her. It would have been fair and proper for her to understand the implications of her being the wife of Pandian and, further understanding his role in the overall gamut of ongoing elections, she should have proceeded on leave and disassociated herself from anything to do with public dealing during the elections,” reads the complaint.
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Confirming the transfer, a senior government official said the state will issue a notification on her appointment in a day or two.
In the complaint lodged by Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Rajeev Chandrasekhar and senior BJP leader Sudhansu Trivedi and Om Pathak, the BJP also alleged that Sujata is actively participating in the elections as a front person of the BJD.
Under Mission Shakti, the Odisha government has formed over six lakh self-help groups (SHGs) comprising around 70 lakh women. Under the programme initiated in 2001, the Odisha government ensures bank loans to these SHGs to take up various livelihood activities.
The scheme is one of the top priority programmes of the Naveen Patnaik government as rural women are known to be a loyal vote bank of the BJD and the biggest factor behind its successive electoral victories. After winning the 2019 polls for the fifth time, the Patnaik government approved a proposal to give government businesses worth Rs 1,000 crore to the women SHGs.
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“Mission Shakti is being grossly misused by the ruling dispensation of the State, that is, BJD, to influence voters to vote for it in the 2024 Parliamentary and Legislative Assembly Elections,” reads the BJP complaint.
The complaint adds that functionaries of the Mission Shakti department have been compelling and coercing SHGs with the threat of stopping financial benefits so women vote for the BJD.
