Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to no more dillydally in undertaking a reshuffle his Ministry. The manner in which he answered reporters’ query on Thursday indicated that he has made up his mind to effect the long-awaited changes in his team.
“I do not rule out a possibility of a reshuffle in the Ministry,” Patnaik said, hinting at an early move.
In fact, Patnaik had more than three months ago said he was going to make changes in his Ministry. And it was expected that he would go in for a reshuffle just after the Assembly’s Budget Session that ended on April 4. However, he appeared to be hesitating in his decision.
It was felt that in view of a trend of dissidence in his BJD, Patnaik was shaky in dislodging the Ministers from his team. But he now seems to have regained his firmness with a strategy to fix the dissenting elements, who apparently took advantage of a sticky situation for the party in the event of a surge by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the panchayat elections.
According to political observers, Patnaik would reassert his absolute leadership and regain his unparalleled popularity if he throws out the known corrupt Ministers and brings in party leaders having unblemished image.
To another question by the media on Thursday, Patnaik said the visit of BJP national president Amit Shah to the State in June and again in August or September to chalk out booth-wise electoral strategies for the saffron party would have no effect on the BJD, which, he asserted, would nullify all the moves of the BJP to dominate the State’s political scenario.