Naveen Patnaik at BJD party office in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 18: A number of new faces were visible at the BJD headquarters today with each one trying to acquaint themselves with the ambience and atmosphere of the party office.

New to the BJD office, they are some of the party’s 117 newly elected MLAs. It was left to BJD general secretary Narendra Swain to guide them at the party office. Veteran MLAs, however, had their own agenda — trying to get close to chief minister Naveen Patnaik before he decides on his new ministry.

Despite the scorching heat, all the 117 party MLAs reached the party office to welcome the chief minister. They were greeted with the traditional drink — challahs. Though it was earlier scheduled that the chief minister would reach the party office around 1.25pm, he was late by 20 minutes. But no one seemed to mind.

Every one desperately wanted to see Naveen, who led the party to its the fourth consecutive victory with an extraordinary mix of unprecedented hype, unbridled hope and unparalleled hard work.

One of BJD’s newly elected MLA and filmstar Akash Das Nayak was seen standing on one side like any other ordinary party member.

Though Nayak has a fan club in the reel world, there was none to greet him at the party office. Not only Nayak, others who were elected also found them in an awkward situation.

While the newly elected MLAs tried to know each other, the leaders who have been able to make a come back, exchanged pleasantries. As ministry formation is going to take place within a short time, every one tried to be in the good book of the other and tried not to stir any controversy.

As Naveen reached the party office, there was a mad rush among the leaders to get close to him. Suddenly there was a commotion.

The leaders queued up to greet Naveen on the stage. A few of them even touched his feet to seek blessings. Naveen accepted the bouquets and wished them good luck with his beatific smile. A sort of competition was evident among the young turks to get close to the party chief.

As the meeting proceeded, senior leader V. Sugani Kumari Deo placed a proposal to elect Naveen as the leader of the BJD legislature party. Another veteran Damodar Rout seconded the proposal.

After being elected leader of the legislature party, Naveen said he would work for the development of the state as well as for the poor people of Odisha with renewed effort. After a brief speech, he left the party office within 20 minutes.

As soon as Naveen left, the leaders began to move out with the hope that they will get a call from the party supremo during formation of the ministry.