Security call

Ever since its inception, the annual senior police officers' conference has almost invariably been held in Cuttack, the state police headquarters. This time, however, there was a break from tradition with the conference being inaugurated in Cuttack but its valedictory session being held in Bhubaneswar. Sources said decision to hold the concluding function in the state capital was taken in view of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s security since he was the chief guest on the occasion. Incidents of egg attack on BJD ministers in various parts of the state in the past week having triggered concern, the police brass were in no mood to take chances. “Any untoward incident involving the chief minister would have caused major embarrassment. So, it was decided to have the concluding session in Bhubaneswar,” said a source.

Tit for tat

The BJD’s youth brigade is in no mood to take the incidents of egg attack on party ministers lying down. Though chief minister Naveen Patnaik has chosen not to react, several younger leaders of his party have made it known that if the Congress, the main Opposition party, continues with these attacks, it would be paid back in its own coin. The first to issue a stern warning to the Congress was former minister and party spokesperson P.K. Deb, who found it hard to restrain himself when asked to comment on the issue. 

“They should not cross the line or else it may be tit for tat,” he cautioned the rival party. The BJD’s student wing chief and Chandbali MLA Byomkesh Ray was even more forthright. “If we start paying them back in kind, they won’t be able to stop us,” threatened the young legislator.

Peace talks

In the war between Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Prasad Harichandan and former Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das, the latter has blinked first. That Das, who had threatened a confrontation with the PCC chief over the selection of Kalahandi district unit president, has been forced to swallow his pride is evident from the fact that he recently visited the Congress Bhavan in Bhubaneswar for peace talks with Harichandan. Emerging from the closed-door meeting looking slightly fazed, the veteran from Kalahandi said there had been a communication gap between him and the party chief. This was a clear admission of guilt and proof that he had been asked by the party high command to refrain from turning the confrontation into a full-fledged war.

Bold stand

Congress veteran Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra aka Lulu seems to be in an aggressive mood. Keen to regain his lost following within the party, he has begun touring districts and encouraging youth activists of the party to target ministers and BJD leaders, who are perceived to have failed to address the people’s problems. Unlike most of his party leaders, he has also taken a bold stand on the controversial issue of ministers being pelted with eggs by Congress activists. When senior party leaders such as Narasingha Mishra chose not to approve of egg attacks as a means of protest, Lulu boldly congratulated the protesters, some of whom have since been arrested. “He is going against the grain and deliberately so,” remarked a Congress leader.

Lens on Badri 

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is said to be unhappy with rural development minister Badri Narayan Patra, who has failed to manage party affairs in Keonjhar district effectively. The party received a major jolt in the district recently when nine of its councillors in the Keonjhar Municipality voted against their own mayor throwing her out of power. What has angered the chief minister is the fact that these councillors had been hobnobbing with the Congress and the BJP leaders for sometime before staging the rebellion, but Patra had no inkling of what was coming. In December last year, former BJD MLA Bhagirathi Sethi had quit the party and joined the BJP with Patra remaining a mute spectator.

FOOTNOTE

Damage control

Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram is still trying to make amends for the goof-up he made recently by publicly admitting that the CBI had slowed down its probe into the money deposit collection scam in the state and that the BJD should be thankful to the NDA government for this. 

Within hours of making the statement, Oram realised that the gaffe instead of embarrassing the BJD had actually hurt the interests of his own party more. 

As criticism within the BJP mounted, he launched a damage control exercise, saying that his statement had been misinterpreted implying thereby that he neither meant any offence to the CBI nor did he agree to the charge of a deal between the NDA government and the BJD in the money deposit collection scam probe.