**Bhubaneswar: ** In the wake of senior BJD leader Bishnu Charan Das all of a sudden being asked by party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to resign from his nine-month-old tenure as Rajya Sabha member, speculations are rife on three probable choices for the Upper House of Parliament.
As ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo’s both political and administrative decisions are most often hidden cards up his sleeve and never off the cuff, this astounding decision to prompt his loyal lieutenant to relinquish his Rajya Sabha seat has stoked up rumour mills among the BJD rank and file, opposition as well as poll pundits in the State these days.
However, grapevine goes that the three probable substitutes are senior Congress leader-cum-former union minister Bhakta Charan Das, Naveen’s elder sister Gita Mehta and senior BJP leader-cum-former union minister Dilip Ray.
Bhakta Das is a previous member of the Janata Parivar who had been the Cabinet colleague of the then Prime Minister Chandrasekhar. Besides having a good rapport at the national political arena, he has a grip over his home district Kalahandi’s politics already being its former MLA and MP. He too is a poster boy for the ST/SC electorate in the State.
BJD this time has tasted sour fruit in the recently concluded rural polls and the Zilla Parishad has shockingly been wrested by BJP from BJD. The ruling BJD has fared miserably in Kalahandi district as compared to BJP which has won 33 out of 36 ZP seats. It is being argued that the choice for Bhakta is not unreasonable as the then senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Odisha Assembly Bhupinder Singh was also roped in by Naveen on the eve of 2014 general elections. Singh is also an incumbent Rajya Sabha member on BJD ticket.
Naveen Patnaik’s elder sister Gita Mehta is not only a renowned author, but also the friend, guide and philosopher of her most affectionate youngest brother.
According to BJD insiders, Naveen Patnaik is emotionally close to her and she visits him regularly and has attended all his swearing-in ceremonies. After the landslide victory in 2014 assembly elections and the BJD Government’s record fourth consecutive term, she had hailed Naveen as ‘great CM Odisha has got’.
She has been the lone member from the Biju Patnaik family to witness Naveen Patnaik taking oaths at Raj Bhavan here.
Recently, Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik was also spotted visiting Oxford Book Store located at Jaydev Vihar in the city with sister Gita. They were unprecedentedly seen allowing selfies with the readers while shopping for books at the store. Both were surrounded by their followers and both obliged for selfies and pictures when many youngsters approached them at the store.
Former union minister as well as Rajya Sabha member and present Rourkela (BJP) MLA Dilip Ray was not only looked after as the foster son of Biju Babu, but also was one among the ace founder members of BJD in the last part of 1990s.
Despite being a senior BJP leader, he is now-a-days being witnessed kept at bay by the party as Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has taken the centre stage. Ray was neither included in the star campaigner list of BJP during the Panchayat polls nor he is seen active in the BJP party meetings, be it of Amit Shah’s or any other top shots of the party, poll pundits remark.
Speculations are rife that the impenetrable and inaccessible BJD supremo, perhaps being jolted by the bolt from the Panchayat poll blue, has planned of certain masterstroke to be played.
Sources say Naveen apparently aims at making a loud and clear political statement by sending someone to the Upper House.
