Niranjan’s barbs at CM

Soon after taking charge as the Pradesh Congress Committee president, Niranjan Patnaik went hammer and tongs against Naveen Patnaik dispensation describing it as a private limited company. His enthusiasm was understandable considering it was his first day in office and he was keen to convince one and all that he meant business. This, even he realises, is no mean task given the internal feuds of the Congress which has always been a divided house in the state. The onus now lies on Niranjan to put an end to the factional wars of the party and turn it into a fighting unit capable of taking on the BJD if he really means what he said on Day One.

Lonely ‘Raja Saheb’

Always a lonely figure towards the last days of his tenure as the state Congress president, former union minister K.P. Singhdeo now seems to be lonelier. Those who stuck to him in his days of power have deserted him now. They are trying to find ways of pleasing the new boss Niranjan Patnaik. Singhdeo, according to sources close to him, is now likely to devote more time to non-political pursuits. They say that 'Raja Saheb' with his love for territorial army life and sports is certain to find ways of keeping himself fruitfully busy.

Banner trouble

The state-level natural calamities committee meeting on Tuesday began with a bit of turmoil in the meeting hall where employees struggled to keep the banner announcing the programme in place. With the meeting being chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik himself, the staff on duty looked disaster-struck as the banner put up by the revenue and disaster management department, the host, suddenly came unstuck from one end. The embarrassed staff members huffed and puffed running around to put the banner, hanging loose from one corner, back in place. But all their efforts went in vain as the deliberations got underway with the banner still hanging limply from one side.

Tape controversy

The audio tape controversy took labour and employment minister Pushpendra Singhdeo by complete surprise. The minister apparently got to know about the audio cassette portraying him as a wheeler-dealer, who had sought to buy over Congress MLA Shibaji Majhi during the 2010 Rajya Sabha elections, while he was returning to Bhubaneswar from his native village in Kalahandi. Sources said that the minister, a scion of the Koksara royal family, was aghast that the cassette was being played by a private TV channel in Bhubaneswar. The well wishers, who kept Singhdeo posted with the developments in Bhubaneswar during the journey, also advised him to get his defences ready as the issue was certain to snowball.

‘Sickness’ theory

Biju Janata Dal second-in-command, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, has been intriguingly silent over the cassette episode, which has landed the ruling party into a controversy. This despite the fact that the Opposition has sought to drag even his name into it, besides pointing accusing fingers at two ministers considered close to him. Sources close to the bureaucrat-turned-politician said he had chosen not to react as he was not well. His adversaries, though, have refused to buy the 'sickness' theory, which, they believe, is nothing but an attempt to wriggle out of a tight situation. 'Every time his name appears in connection with a controversy he is taken sick. This cannot be a coincidence,' quipped a rival.