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In Odisha, BJD-BJP consensus candidate for Rajya Sabha bypoll joins BJP
On Friday evening, the BJP had announced Vaishnaw’s name as its candidate for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats that fell vacant following the resignation of BJD MPs Achyut Samanta, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Pratap Deb.
A day after his name was proposed as consensus candidate of the ruling Biju Janata Dal and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party from Odisha for the Rajya Sabha polls next month; former IAS officer Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday formally joined the BJP at its state party office.
Vaishnaw arrived at the party office on busy Janpath road and met BJP state president and Kalahandi MP Basant Panda around noon and completed the joining formalities.
“BJP has given me a chance to serve the people of Odisha. I thank the party for choosing me as its candidate for the upcoming bypoll. I will work for the development of the state,” Vaishnaw said.
On Friday evening, the BJP had announced Vaishnaw’s name as its candidate for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats that fell vacant following the resignation of BJD MPs Achyut Samanta, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Pratap Deb. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik who announced names of two BJD leaders - IT cell chief Amar Patnaik and spokesperson Sasmit Patra - as party candidates, said BJD would support Vaishnaw in the bypoll. The BJP has 23 MLAs in the Odisha Assembly, not enough to get their candidate elected.
Though he was in Odisha for close to a decade after joining the IAS from Odisha cadre in 1994, very little is known about the Jodhpur-born techie, an electronic and communications engineering graduate from Rajasthan’s Jai Narayan Vyas University in 1992. Later, he did his M-Tech from IIT Kanpur. He was first noticed during the 1999 super cyclone when he kept the state government informed about the track of the cyclone by browsing an US Navy website and faxing the details at regular intervals.
He joined Vajpayee’s PMO as deputy secretary in 2003 and after 2004 he became the former PM’s private secretary. He also worked as deputy chairman of Marmugoa Port Trust. During his IAS tenure, he had completed an MBA course from the prestigious Wharton School of Business, Pennsylvania.
After remaining in the administrative service for about 15 years, he quit the service and later became vice president - Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy of Siemens. Vaishnaw spent nearly 15 years as an IAS officer. He started off as Collector of Cuttack, and then became Deputy Secretary in the PMO and subsequently Deputy Chairman of the Mormugoa Port Trust in Goa. After leaving the IAS, he served in the board of directors of several companies including the controversial Triveni Earthmovers Private Limited, a mining contractor company that was named in the Shah Commission report of Odisha mining scam in 2013.
On being contacted, Vaishnaw did not take calls for an interview.
BJP leader Damodar Rout said BJD’s support for Vaishnaw’s candidature meant Naveen Patnaik has said goodbye to his equidistance policy. Congress spokesperson Satya Prakash Nayak said Vaishnaw alleged his candidature exposed the unholy nexus between BJD and BJP. “People of Odisha want to know what condition was set for such a deal,” he said.
