Bishnu Charan Das of the BJD, who was on Saturday appointed as the Vice-Chairman of the State Planning Board by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, would quit his membership of the Rajya Sabha in two to three days.
Das, who was also on Saturday nominated as the convener of the BJD Scheduled Caste Cell by party president Naveen Patnaik, said on Sunday that he would leave for New Delhi on Monday and would soon tender his resignation from his Rajya Sabha membership to the Chairman of the Parliament’s Upper House Hamid Ansari.
Asked by The Pioneer about the speculations that late Biju Patnaik’s daughter and Naveen Patnaik’s sister United States-based Gita Mehta, a writer of repute, may be his successor as a Rajya Sabha member, Das said he would be “very happy” if this happens.
“It will be a matter of pride for Odisha if Bijubabu’s daughter goes to the Rajya Sabha,” Das remarked.
But he decried the rumoured move for replacing him with former State Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik in the Rajya Sabha alleging that his track record as a bureaucrat was questionable.
When his attention was drawn to his intra-BJD foe Minister Damodar Rout’s derisive comments on his appointment as the State Planning Board Vice-Chairman, Das said it is better to ignore whatever
Rout said as it is his (Rout’s) “nature and habit” to speak in such fashion.
Notably, Rout stated on Sunday that Das was perhaps considered as competent as Biju Patnaik and Nandini Satpathy who had in the past headed the Planning Board. What Rout obviously wanted to say was that Das is a person of much less calibre than his predecessors to occupy the post.
Interestingly, Rout’s jibe at Das was in effect against the decision of Naveen Patnaik in choosing the Vice-Chairman of the Planning Board, which is headed by the Chief Minister.