Pandian’s wife Sujata Karthikeyan goes on child care leave for 6 months

Bhubaneswar: Odisha IAS officer Sujata Karthikeyan, serving as Special Secretary of Finance department, has proceeded on six months’ leave.

According to a notification issued by the General Administration department, the IAS officer has been granted ‘Child Care’ leave for a period of 6 months from May 31 to November 26 to take care of her daughter, appearing for the Class X exams.

This comes almost a month after Sujata was removed from the post of Secretary, Mission Shakti, and appointed as Special Secretary, Finance department, following an instruction from the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard. The ECI had ordered to transfer her to a non-public dealing department hours after a delegation of BJP’s central leaders submitted a complaint, accusing the 2000-batch IAS officer of ‘actively’ operating as an agent of the ruling BJD in the state.

She is the wife of BJD leader V K Pandian, who took a plunge into state politics after taking voluntary retirement from All India Civil Services in October 2023.

The regional party faced a debacle in the 2024 twin elections. It drew a zero in Lok Sabha poll while its Assembly number crashed to 51 from 112 in 2019, ending the Naveen Patnaik’s 24-year rule in the state. Pandian, who is being perceived as a key reason for BJD’s setback in the elections, was conspicuous by his absence ever since the declaration of results on Tuesday. The party, however, later came to his defence and clarified that he was in New Delhi on the instruction of Naveen Patnaik.