Missing limelight

Agriculture minister Pradeep Maharathy, who was one of the guests of honour at the World Coconut Day and National Award Distribution event held in Bhubaneswar on Friday, skipped the programme for reasons best known to him. But in his absence, the focus was on another Maharathy who, however, has nothing to do with politics. Pranay Kumar Maharathy, a coconut farmer from Puri district, which also happens to be the home district of minister Pradeep, received the biggest applause as he collected his award from Union agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh for excellence in his chosen field. With Pranay, a political science graduate who took to coconut farming of his own volition, hogging the limelight the absence of minister Pradeep was hardly felt.  

United fight

With BJP gearing up for the upcoming panchayat polls, the two Union ministers from the state — Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan — who are often seen as rivals, have joined hands to target the state government. Oram, the senior of the two, had earlier been quiet on issues, such as the Mahanadi dispute between Odisha and Chhattisgarh with Pradhan hogging the limelight by taking on chief minister Naveen Patnaik. But now, they appear to be hunting in tandem with both of them recently launching a tirade against Naveen for failing to provide basic facilities to people in remote tribal areas as evident from the tragic incident of a tribal man in Kalahandi being forced to carry his wife’s corpse on his shoulder for nearly 16km after being denied a hearse by the authorities. “It’s a good sign for the party,” said a state BJP leader.  

Party hopper

Former Bonei MLA Bhimsen Choudhary is struggling to revive his sagging political career, which took a nosedive after he had to quit BJP in the wake of the Rajya Sabha cross-voting controversy. Choudhary, who was mentored in politics by Sundergarh MP and Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram, then joined the Congress and contested the last Assembly elections unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket. Frustrated, he switched loyalties again and joined the BJD. But here, too, he is proving to be unlucky with local cadres of the party reportedly resenting his induction. Besides, his public image seems to have been badly sullied because of his party hopper tag.

Ceasefire

State Congress president Prasad Harichandan and leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra were not on the best of terms since the latter called an all-party meeting on the Mahanadi issue. Furious that Mishra had gone ahead with the meeting without seeking Pradesh Congress Committee’s (PCC) consent, Harichandan made it clear that the conclave did not have the support of the party even though most of the Congress MLAs attended it. The issue embittered the relations between the two leaders to such an extent that they hardly spoke to each other, according to party sources. But things have improved with the party’s central leadership intervening. Peace between them was reportedly brokered by AICC vice-president, Rahul Gandhi, who had a meeting with them in Delhi recently.

Trusted fellow 

Though former minister and BJD spokesperson P.K. Deb has been doing most of the talking on the Mahanadi issue on behalf of the state government, the man actually in focus is the party’s west Odisha veteran and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya, who recently led a fact-finding team to Chhattisgarh to have a close look at the project being executed on the river by the neighbouring state. Acharya is in the limelight not only because of his good knowledge of the subject, but also for the fact that his arguments are always cogent and backed by relevant data. Sources in the BJD said chief minister Naveen Patnaik trusts him the most in the matter. 

FOOTNOTE

Tribal face

Former Nabarangpur Congress MP Pradeep Majhi has emerged as the party’s tribal face by taking the lead in organising movements on issues relating to tribals. 

Be it the issue of tribals in far off districts, such as Nabarangpur and Koraput, being denied rights over land or the plight of people like Daana Majhi, the Kalahandi tribal who was forced to carry his wife’s corpse on his shoulders for about 16km after being denied a hearse, this young gun from the Congress has forced the administration to act by launching agitations. 

Known in the party as a livewire, he also enjoys the support of AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, which makes him virtually indispensable to the party.