Sahu under scanner

Transport minister Sanjeev Sahu has been asked to pull up his socks. BJD insiders say the chief minister is unhappy with the shoddy homework of the minister on several important issues, including allotment of land for construction of a high-tech bus bay at Barmunda and a world-class railway station in Bhubaneswar. The latter issue had recently generated a lot of heat in the Assembly with revenue and disaster management minister Surya Narayan Patro replying to the Opposition motion on the subject on behalf of Sahu. The transport minister has also been rather awkward in handling the media, which is increasingly beginning to find fault with his work. Sahu better be on his guard.

 

Brother bonding

There is no love lost between BJP legislature party leader K.V. Singhdeo and his cousin, BJD MP from Balangir, Kalikesh Singhdeo. The bad blood between the two royals often gets reflected in public life as was the recent case, when the BJP leader, on reaching the venue of an official programme to which he had been invited along with Kalikesh, realised that he had been outsmarted by the latter. Though the programme, the inauguration of a hospital building at Belpada in Balangir district, was scheduled at 4.30pm that day, K.V., on his arrival at the venue around 3.45pm, found that it was all over. The function had been advanced to 3.30pm without informing him and Kalikesh had left after inaugurating the building in the company of the Western Odisha Development Council chairperson Padmini Sekhar Deo.

 

Scribes upset

Bhubaneswar deputy commissioner of police Nitinjeet Singh had a brush with the capital’s reporters the day Maoists set free Italian tour operator Paolo Bosusco. What irks reporters, who waited for hours at the state guest house to have a word with the Italian, was the manner in which the police tried to bundle Paolo away in a waiting vehicle to shield him from the scribes’ queries. Angry journalists gheraoed the car in which Paolo sat accompanied by the Italian ambassador and consul-general and forced him to come out despite vociferous protests from Singh and his team of policemen. The Italian was allowed to leave only after addressing the media.

 

All smiles

TV grabs of chief minister Naveen Patnaik shaking hands and sharing pleasantries with his Gujarat counterpart, Narendra Modi, during the recent chief ministers’ conference in Delhi has sparked off speculation about a possible patch up between him and his estranged ally, the BJP. Naveen later had another encounter with Modi at the Tamil Nadu House where both the leaders had been invited by Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to discuss issues such as the National Counter Terrorism Centre and the country’s federal structure on which they appeared to have a convergence of views. No wonder, on his return to Bhubaneswar following the Delhi trip, Naveen was asked about his growing proximity to Modi and whether this meant that the BJP was no more untouchable for him. The chief minister ducked the question with a quizzical smile on his face.

 

Tough choice

The loyalists of Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, once considered the No. 2 man in the BJD, are in two minds following the reported rupture in his relations with chief minister Naveen Patnaik. While they can ill afford to snap their links with Mohapatra, given the fact that he still commands a lot of political clout, their continued hobnobbing with him may incur the chief minister’s wrath. Ruling party sources say ministers such as Badri Narayan Patra and BJD deputy chief whip Arun Sahu, who were among the close followers of Mohapatra, are in a real quandary. For the time being, they are trying their best to play safe by keeping a discreet distance from Mohapatra.