Bhubaneswar4 November 2025, 09:03 AM IST
First published on: 4 November 2025 at 09:03 AM IST
On the day Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief and former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik began his campaign for the November 11 Nuapada Assembly elections by polls on Monday, senior party leader and former Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik switched to the BJP.
Amar’s defection is seen as a calculated move by the BJP, which took up its induction function simultaneously with the Prime Minister’s party’s previous election rally.
“I am inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to take the country forward and work for the development of all sections of society. I saw his vision during my tenure in the Rajya Sabha. I have decided to join the BJP to contribute to nation building,” Amar Patnaik said after joining the BJP in the presence of Prime Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and state party president Manmohan Samal.
Amar, 58, a former Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer who served as Principal Accountant General of Odisha, Sikkim, West Bengal and Kerala, chose voluntary retirement nine years early in 2018 to join BJD.
Amar, known for his data-driven political strategy, was put in charge of the party’s IT cell and was tasked with overseeing poll details for various constituencies during the simultaneous 2019 Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state. He was among a handful of BJP leaders known to have access to Naveen Patnaik’s inner circles.
Months after the BJP won the elections in 2019, Amar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, where he served until April last year. As a national spokesperson for the BJD, he has been outspoken on many issues and has often criticized the BJP.
After the BJP’s defeat in the 2024 Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, the former bureaucrat led the party’s charge on “alleged discrepancies in election data” and led a delegation to the Election Commission seeking clarifications.
Amar had earlier claimed that the BJD had submitted a petition backed by around 200 pages of “strong data” to the poll panel to highlight these discrepancies. The party had raised three main concerns before the EC – the difference between the total votes polled at booth level and those counted from the corresponding electronic voting machines; Mismatch between votes cast in the Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly elections held simultaneously; The “big difference” between the voter turnout rate revealed by the European Commission on polling day and the final numbers announced two days later.
“Unlike other opposition parties, the BJP pointed out these discrepancies with strong data and six months of research. Amar Patnaik played a crucial role in identifying these issues,” a senior BJP leader said.
The leader said he was “not sure” what prompted Amar to join the BJP despite him enjoying importance within the top echelons of the BJP. Although he had no defined support base and had never contested direct elections, BJP sources said he would be a “valuable asset” in preparing the party’s long-term strategy.
Welcoming him into the BJP fold and calling his appointment a “big setback for the BJP”, Majhi said Amar’s “vast experience and knowledge” in various sectors will greatly help the state government in its development efforts.
(Tags for translation)Bharatiya Janata Party(R)Biju Janata Dal(R)Naveen Patnaik
