2 birds, 1 stone

• Advertisements in Saturday's newspapers about the inauguration of an exhibition on the Champaran Satyagraha's centenary celebrations by Union ministers Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan, who will be chief guest and guest of honour respectively on the occasion, have raised eyebrows. Many wondered why the celebrations of the satyagraha that took place in Bihar has suddenly assumed such importance for the people of Odisha. Some clever ones sought to put their own spin over the whole thing.

"Pradhan, though a native of Odisha, happens to be a Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar. So, he is taking this opportunity on the occasion of Prime Minister's visit to the state capital for the BJP's national executive. He is good at killing two birds with one stone," quipped one of them.

Eye of storm

• Controversies continue to dog BJD veteran Bishnu Das, who was recently appointed as the deputy chairperson of the Odisha State Planning Board. Das is in the eye of a storm for having allegedly made a political speech at Kallolla, a cultural fest in Jagatsinghpur, his home district.

Alleging that Das used a cultural platform to forecast his party's victory in the 2019 general elections in the district, Congress activists staged a demonstration in the coastal town and burnt his effigy. However, Das, who has weathered many a political storm in the past, remains unfazed. He has denied the allegations and dismissed the controversy as a non-issue.

Back in action

• Having maintained a low profile for some time in the wake of a controversy over his alleged involvement in a scandal, Bhubaneswar mayor Ananta Narayan Jena is back into the fore. And he is doing what he loves the most - cracking his whip on illegal parking operators, who, during his short political hibernation, have mushroomed across the city. Sources said Jena recently got a tip-off about an illegal parking lot at Ashok Nagar. Instead of raiding the place himself, as has been his habit, he sent three of his best officers in the guise of civilians. When the parking lot operator fined them, he was caught red-handed. Jena's drive against illegal parking lot operators is likely to continue.

Unity message

If BJD sources are to be believed, chief minister Naveen Patnaik has succeeded in patching things up between the warring MPs of his party. He spent some time with them during his recent visit to Delhi when he chaired a BJD parliamentary party meeting, prioritising for them the issues they would be raising in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. He also underscored the need for complete unity in the party in the wake of attempts by the BJP to make inroads into BJD bastions. Later, he posed happily for shutterbugs alongside party MPs, sending out a message of unity. Party sources, however, said the real test for Naveen would be in ensuring that the leaders did not air their views on crucial issues in public.

FOOTNOTE

Hobson's choice

Matters have come to a head in the faction-ridden state Congress. While the disciplinary panel of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee is itching to take action against the recalcitrant MLA duo Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Prafulla Majhi for allegedly mocking the state leadership, including state party-in-charge B.K. Hariprasad, they don’t appear to be in a mood to back down. They have, for all practical purposes, dared the Congress high command to go ahead and take action against them. For the leadership, the choice is now between maintaining discipline and keeping the party united. Given the fact that it is a Hobson’s choice, the entire party is waiting to see if the high command decides to bite the bullet and crack its whip on the two MLAs.

Ashutosh Mishra