Calculated move

The Congress chief whip and party’s Jeypore MLA, Tara Prasad Bahinipati, seems to be itching for a confrontation with AICC general secretary in charge of Odisha affairs B.K. Hariprasad. Known for his plain speak, he has repeatedly criticised the leadership’s handling of state party affairs leaving no one in doubt that his targets are Hariprasad and Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Prasad Harichandan. He even jumped to the defence of the party’s student wing leaders, who were suspended recently for heckling Hariprasad in the wake of former state youth Congress chief Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra’s death. Congress sources said Bahinipati’s aggression is a calculated move backed not only by influential MLAs but also by senior leaders such as former PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik.

Foot in mouth 

Foot-in-the-mouth disease seems to be spreading fast in the BJD. While in the past, senior leaders such as excise minister Damodar Rout and Lok Sabha member Bhartruhari Mahatab have faced criticism within the party on this account, now a statement made by former minister and senior BJD spokesperson P.K. Deb has left the party red in the face. Quizzed by journalists about a statement made by a minister on the Mahanadi water dispute issue in the Assembly in 2010, Deb said government departments at times provided misleading facts. The Opposition was quick to latch on to Deb’s statement to project the government in a poor light. Though BJD leaders have so far refrained from criticising Deb openly, there are murmurs within the party.

Laundry time

In the immediate wake of demonetisation, some ingenious business house owners in Bhubaneswar found a clever way of disposing of the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in their possession. While some paid their employees three to five months of salary in advance, others extended interest free loans to their workers. All the payments were made in cash using the demonetised currency. The employees, though surprised by this unusual display of generosity, did not object and accepted the money. How they used the money is anyone’s guess, but the employers had succeeded in getting their black money converted into white.

Rout’s jibe

Excise minister Damodar Rout, the senior most in the Naveen Patnaik cabinet in  of age, is known for his speaking his mind even at the cost of hurting his own party colleagues. When asked by journalists about his absence at the Biju Patnaik centenary celebrations in New Delhi last week, he took a dig at his junior colleagues who were invited to the event and took part quite enthusiastically. “I don’t know how many of them have seen Biju babu,” remarked Rout obviously referring to his long association with the former chief minister and how older generation leaders in the BJD were being ignored by the party leadership.

Fish wish 

Agriculture, farmers’ empowerment, fisheries and animal resources minister Pradeep Maharathy had launched Chilika fresh outlets with much fanfare in 2014 promising people fresh fish and prawn from the Chilika lake at reasonable prices without the fear of being cheated. However, two years down the road while the number of these outlets has gone up in Bhubaneswar, questions are being raised about the quality of fish being supplied by them with even allegations of cheating surfacing. 

Many customers have been found grumbling about the way fish, especially prawn, is cleaned before being packed. “Those cleaning the prawn keep parts that they later use themselves. When we object, they argue with us,” complained a homemaker, who bought prawn recently from an outlet located near CRP Square. Let’s hope the minister does something about it. 

Media rant

State Congress president Prasad Harichandan is miffed with the Bhubaneswar media. Harichandan, who has been getting bad press for sometime with newspapers writing every other day about the differences between him and leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra, has now taken to the social media to air his grievances. 
In a video uploaded on his Facebook page recently, he accused the media of singling out his party as if differences existed only in the Congress and no other parties. He even went to the extent of suggesting that media were highlighting the infighting in his party exclusively under “influence”. 

It is another matter that a section of his own party leaders have not taken the video seriously.