In good books

BJD vice-president and excise minister Damodar Rout has reason to smile. He was the man in focus at the extended executive committee meeting of the party held in Bhubaneswar last Sunday. Not only was he one of the most prominent figures on the dais, the honour of welcoming chief minister Naveen Patnaik with a bouquet when he arrived at the venue was also reserved for him. While this meant that Rout was back in the good books of the chief minister, the minister also had the satisfaction of seeing his bete noire, Rajya Sabha member Bishnu Das, sitting below the dais. Rout could not have asked for more.

Lost glory

Ever since allegations of involvement of film stars-turned-BJD leaders in the money deposit collection scam and other scandals surfaced, the halo around most of these leaders seems to have vanished. The party, too, has stopped treating them as celebrities. The change in the party’s attitude towards the stars was visible at its extended executive committee meeting in the state capital where none of these tinsel town celebrities-turned-politicians could be spotted sitting in the front rows. Even Anubhav, the most famous among them and a Rajya Sabha member, was in the back rows away from the spotlight. One also failed to spot Berhampur MP Siddhant Mohapatra, a matinee idol in his own right, in the front rows. 

Chirpy bunch

Much to the chagrin of mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, councillors of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) behaved like a bunch of noisy schoolchildren during the MoU signing ceremony for setting up water ATMs in the city on Tuesday. The mayor tried his best but could not stop his flock from chirping away merrily while the agreement was being signed. The noise distracted many, but the councillors couldn’t care less. There was more embarrassment in store for Jena as one the councillors started talking to the top official of the private company that signed the agreement with the BMC in what appeared to be a hotchpotch of Hindi, English and Odia. The poor man could barely understand what the councillor was saying and looked towards the mayor for help but the latter appeared to be equally helpless.

Spot of bother

Once handpicked by chief minister Naveen Patnaik for the job, director-general of police K.B. Singh finds himself in an unenviable situation in the wake of a raging controversy over the killing of five innocent civilians in the alleged crossfire between police and Maoists in the tribal-dominated Kandhamal district. He is said to have got a firing from his boss when he turned up at the secretariat recently to present his side of the story. The Opposition parties, which have described the incident as a case of fake encounter, are also gunning for his scalp. 

For Singh, who had first come into media focus when a vigilance case was filed against former DGP Prakash Mishra under his watch as director of vigilance, the Kandhamal encounter fiasco is going to be his first real test as the head of the state’s police force.  

Party hopper  

Former Bonei MLA Bhimsen Choudhary joined the BJD recently, but the event failed to create a buzz in the political circles despite the wide publicity accorded to it by the ruling party. 

The BJD, according to sources, treats Choudhary as a prize catch and plans to pit him against Sundargarh MP and Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram who had mentored the former MLA in the initial stages. 

But the move is likely to backfire as Choudhary, who had contested the last election on a Congress ticket after being thrown out of the BJP, continues to wear the party hopper tag. 

Besides, he is no longer the political force that he once used to be in Bonei, part of Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency. 

FOOTNOTE

Worried leader

State Congress president Prasad Harichandan is a worried man. Try as he may, he is unable to contain the factional feuds within the party. The latest embarrassment for him was the brawl that erupted recently at the party’s meet in Bhadrak where rival faction workers came to blows in the presence of state party in-charge B.K. Hariprasad. 

Though Harichandan, who was also present when trouble erupted at the venue, sought to play it down saying the troublemakers did not belong to the Congress, no one bought the explanation. Coming at a time when the party is preparing for the next panchayat elections, such incidents do not augur well for the party.