Bhubaneswar, May 3 (FN Bureau) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered immediate transfer of Odisha Mission Shakti department secretary Sujata R Karthikeyan, wife of BJD leader V K Pandian, to a non-public dealing department. The ECI direction came on Thursday in the wake of a petition before the Commission filed by BJP alleging that the Mission Shakti secretary has been misusing her office and allegedly working for the ruling BJD in the state influencing the women self-help groups to vote for the BJD. The BJP had alleged that Sujata Karthikeyan was “misusing” her position and SVEEP of the Election Commission to influence women self-help groups under Mission Shakti for “electoral gains of BJD”.
The Women self-group has a sizable number of about 70 lakh women voters attached to six lakh women self-help groups in the state, the BJP leaders alleged and stated that in the name of spreading voters’ awareness among the self-help group women, the Mission Shakti Secretary has been allegedly helping the BJD. A BJP delegation, led by senior BJP leaders Rajeev Chandrasekhar , Sudhansu Trivedi, Om Pathak and others, had submitted a petition before the ECI in New Delhi on Thursday against the IAS officer whose husband V K Pandian had taken voluntary retirement from the IAS service, joined the Biju Janata Dal and is considered as number two in the party next to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.