Routray’s revenge

The helplessness of labour minister Bijoyshree Routray was evident in the days following the fire mishap at the Bhushan steel plant.

Despite his express instructions, the mandarins of his department took inordinately long time to ascertain the exact number of casualties in the accident. They also struggled to get hold of the plant muster rolls, which was a must to know the exact strength of its labour force.

The minister also lamented publicly that his instructions for safety audit of the accident-prone steel plant was not carried out. Routray must have felt vindicated and got his own back when labour secretary C.T.M. Suguna was shunted out of the department apparently for not being up to the scratch.

Double dig

Campaigning for his party in Balangir, his home district, a cockily confident state BJP president, K.V. Singhdeo, poked fun at the Biju Janata Dal that had deployed a battery of stars, including comedian Pappu Pom Pom, to woo voters in the municipal elections.

“Not one, even four Pappus won’t make any difference to the BJP in the district,” said Singhdeo, who hails from the local royal family. For many his statement had a double meaning as chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who is Pappu to his close circle of socialite friends, had also campaigned for his party in the west Odisha district. They felt Singhdeo was having a dig at the chief minister as well.

Stunt time

Elections are the time for stunts, some funny, some weird, but all aimed at garnering votes.

People in Bhawanipatna, the seat of Kalahandi district administration, stopped in their tracks recently as energy minister Arun Sahu drove a rickshaw through the town with his former cabinet colleague Pushpendra Singhdeo on the passenger seat. The two young leaders, who were campaigning for their party’s candidates for the municipal polls in the area, drew amusing stares, but the stunt seems to have yielded results as the BJD has done rather well in Bhawanipatna, which was considered a Congress stronghold. In the stunts department, the duo of Sahu and Singhdeo beat some Odia film personalities who canvassed for BJD candidates in the urban elections.

In deep sea

Controversies continue to dog finance minister and senior BJD leader Prasanna Acharya. First he found himself in the eye of a storm by persuading chief minister Naveen Patnaik to send a letter to the Centre recommending the constitution of a permanent high court bench in west Odisha without waiting for the Pal Commission report.

Now, he has landed in a controversy yet again with State Election Commission issuing him a notice for alleged poll code violation by making an objectionable speech in Bargarh while campaigning for his party.

While Acharya, who has been roundly criticised by the Opposition for trying to influence voters, is yet to open his mouth on the issue, his party colleague and health minister Damodar Rout has jumped to his defence.

Whether that would be enough to save him or not only time will tell.

Sweet victory

There is no love lost between state BJP president K.V. Singhdeo and his cousin Kalikesh Narayan Singhdeo, the BJD MP from Balangir.

Their relations worsened in the wake of last Lok Sabha elections when K.V.’s wife Sangeeta lost to Kalikesh from Balangir.

Now, K.V. seems to have got his own back with BJP retaining its hold on the Patnagarh Notified Area Council, which is a part of the Balangir Lok Sabha constituency. Patnagarh, incidentally, is the only civic body where the BJP has won a majority this time.

But, it has been such a sweet victory for K.V. For Kalikesh, on the other hand, it is time for some soul searching.

Ashutosh Mishra