Damodar Rout

Paradip, Nov. 13: After dissident Biju Janata Dal minister Damodar Rout floated Biju Vichar Manch, his bete noire in Jagatsinghpur district, Bishnu Charan Das, has formed a trade union and named it after the legendary leader, Biju Patnaik, in Paradip.

Political circles feel that Das’s move was aimed at countering the influence of Rout’s newly-launched Biju Vichar Manch.

Significantly, the trade union, Biju Workers’ Union, was formed in Paradip, which happens to be Rout’s Assembly constituency. Both Rout and Das hail from Jagatsinghpur district.

Rout had launched the Manch last month after he was dropped from the Naveen Patnaik government apparently because of his strained relationship with BJD second-in-command, Pyari Mohan Mohapatra. Rout did not accept the authority of Mohapatra, who is considered a parallel power centre in the party along with Naveen.

Though the veteran leader continues to be the party’s vice-president, he is often sidelined from party affairs and programmes organised even in his home district, whereas his arch rival and Mohapatra loyalist Bishnu Charan Das is allowed to call the shots in the district politics.

Incidentally, Das heads the newly floated union, which reportedly enjoys the patronage of Mohapatra. Besides Das, the trade union comprises, among others, the state’s energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, labour and employment minister Pushpendra Singhdeo, Jagatsinghpur MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai and Barabati-Cuttack MLA Debashis Samantaray.