No one is certain when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will return here from his current visit to New Delhi.
Although the Election Commission has already relaxed the model code of conduct in Odisha allowing developmental activities to resume, the Chief Minister's absence has posed some problems in going about the usual official business, a State Secretariat source said.
According to a bureaucratic source, Patnaik, who was scheduled to return on April 30, is probably to be back in Bhubaneswar on May 3 or 4. A ruling BJD source said the Chief Minister who overexerted himself during the election campaign has been advised rest before he begins a fresh innings.
However, there are other stories in circulation. A BJD source said Patnaik is quite unhappy with his party's election managers for letting him down in a number of ways and throwing him into a state of uncertainty over the poll results.
The source said Patnaik is using his holiday in the national Capital to reconnect with his old friends in other parties including the BJP and the Congress. This is because he is chalking out different strategies for different possibilities in the wake of May 16 when the poll outcome will be known.
Yet another source said Patnaik may be upset over reports that the CBI, which is probing into the coal scam, may bring him under its scanner for writing a number of letters to the Union Coal Minister and the Prime Minister recommending allocation of coal blocks to several private companies.
Whatever may be the reason for Patnaik's overstay in Delhi, the 68-year-old leader seems to have lost some of his political zeal and it would take an impressive electoral victory for the BJD to rejuvenate his spirit, said a veteran political observer.