The CBI probe into chit fund scam has done much damage to the ruling BJD. The Ghagapatna land scam and massive misuse of discretionary quota have unravelled the skin of the BJD leaders.
As if more trouble is knocking at the BJD door, the senior party leaders have indulged in bickering over multiple issues, with least care and respect for the image of the party and the boss.
For a time, senior leader and Minister Damodar Rout had a verbal duel with MP Kalpataru Das over the grabbing of BDA plots and flats by the latter and his MlA son. The names of FSCW Minister Sanjay Dasburma and Agriculture Minister Pradip Maharathy too figured in illegal land grab in the city kicking off a furor and resulting in much consternation in the ruling party.
The latest embarrassment for the party has been Revenue Minister Bijayshree Routray’s aggressive posturing and the precarious position of senior leader and Banki MlA Pravat Tripaty. These two have caused so much botheration that finally the party has washed its hands off, saying the leaders found guilty of any wrongdoings have to fight their battle themselves.
After his blunt remarks on justifying his staying in a house on a plot of land his doctor-wife had been granted for running a hospital by the BDA on the discretionary quota, the lecturer-turned politician Minister Routray has hogged much of the media glare for wrong reasons. This time, by heckling a TV reporter in his office and misbehaving with other scribes, including a woman, he has invited much criticism.
Routray seems to be very angry with the electronic media ever since a TV channel aired how he was misusing the discretionary quota of the BDA. Especially, it has made it clear that when his Revenue Department is in the dock for massive land encroachment in the Ghangapatna forest, the Minister heading it too is not spotless. Routray has faced more embarrassments after his wife began to run a clinic over night from their residential house in a bid to wash off the stain on the Minister. The clinic was stage-managed with a few patients living nearby told to attend it. All was done to underscore a point that the plot of land obtained under a sop was not misused.
The Banki MlA should have been a Minister by virtue of his experience and talent. There is no denying that the former Government Chief Whip is peerless so far as his fluent and flawless Odia and appropriate analysis of various political issues are concerned. He was a BJD spokesperson par excellence. But he is now battling with a hard time now, clearly posing a question mark on his political career. His link with chit fund company AT Group is yet to be established, but the very figuring of his name in the list of those BJD men for asking for favour from the fraudulent firm has tarnished his image to a great extent. The way he and his henchmen behaved with mediapersons while trying to escape from their clutch after his interrogation in the CBI office shows how confused, wary, tense and nervous he was.