Students of National Institute of Fashion Technology take part in a face painting competition at their annual event, Spectrum 2014, in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bench demand

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is said to be worried over the revival of the protest for a high court bench in west Odisha.

The issue being ticklish and likely to impact the BJD’s prospects in the coming general elections, he had sought to buy the support of agitating lawyers by shooting off yet another letter to the Union law minister. But the move has backfired with the lawyers dismissing the missive as meaningless.

In any case, the chief minister’s letter had not addressed the basic issues of suggesting the locations for the establishment of benches and obtaining the consent of high court chief justice. Whether Naveen likes it or not, the issue seems set to linger.

All for Gandhi

Senior Congress leader and former minister Matlub Ali suffered a serious lapse of memory while trying to keep the crowd warm for party vice-president Rahul Gandhi at Bhatpada near Salepur, where the Congress organised a show of strength last Sunday preparatory to the upcoming general elections. Heaping praises on Rahul, for whom the crowd waited patiently for more than an hour, he described the young leader as the great grandson of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. A veteran, who has represented the Mahanga Assembly seat in the past, Ali perhaps got carried away by the occasion and the Gandhi surname. Not many in the crowd, though, noticed his involuntary attempt at tweaking history.

BJP barb

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik may flaunt the Krishi Karman Award he received last week in Delhi from President Pranab Mukherjee for the state’s commendable performance in food grain production as a major achievement, but the BJP leaders are far from convinced. Taking a swipe at the chief minister during BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s rally in Bhubaneswar, party leader Biswa Bhushan Harichandan said while Naveen suddenly appeared to have become an “expert” in agriculture and was collecting awards, debt-ridden farmers continued to commit suicide in the state.

“What an irony that this man is crowing about his success on the agriculture front,” exclaimed the BJP veteran sarcastically.

Cong factions

The state Congress campaign committee, which was recently announced by the All-India Congress Committee, has caused much heartburn. The committee, being packed with supporters of state Congress president Jaydev Jena and his mentor Union minister Srikant Jena, who heads the panel, has evoked some caustic comments from senior leaders belonging to rival camps.

His voice dripping sarcasm, former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee chief Niranjan Patnaik reacted to the committee with a left-handed compliment to Srikant and Jaydev.

“They are the assets of our party. We fought the municipal elections under their leadership,” said Patnaik. The comment needed no interpretation as the party had lost the municipal polls badly.

Uncertain future

Two Independent MLAs — Braja Pradhan of Talcher and Jitu Patnaik of Champua — face an uncertain future with BJD-backed candidate Raghunath Mohapatra losing the Rajya Sabha elections. The duo had joined hands with the BJD at the last moment in a move that surprised many, especially because Pradhan had been one of the proposers of Congress candidate Ranjib Biswal, who ultimately emerged victorious.

The buzz in the BJD circles is that the two Independent legislators had been promised party tickets in the coming election as quid pro quo for their support. But the purpose of the BJD having been defeated, now there is a big question mark over whether the promise would be kept.

Ashutosh Mishra

Footnote

Row over seat

The public spat between Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das and Opposition leader Bhupinder Singh over Congress ticket for the Kalahandi seat is the latest manifestation of the widening fissures within the party’s state unit.

Many in the party believe that Bhupinder’s recent statement about his willingness to contest the seat was a deliberate provocation to Das who is almost certain of landing the party ticket.

No wonder, the former minister of state for railways, whose animus for Bhupinder is well known, reacted saying that Congress tickets are not distributed on TV and the leader of Opposition would better stay within his limits.