Odisha politics has been witnessing high dramas on the eve of the general elections, the principal architect of the shows being high-profile Puri BJD MP Pinaki Mishra. Mishra, a former Congress MP, seems determined to dismantle his parent party in the State.
His latest feat was the roping in of two senior Congress leaders, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Bhupinder Singh, and Brajarajnagar Congress MlA Anup Sai, to the BJD.
A few days earlier, Mishra had organised a meeting of the Nayagarh district Congress president Hemendra Singh with BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, who announced Singh’s joining in the BJD. The lone Minister from the district, Arun Sahu, was nowhere in the picture at that time.
Interestingly, Mishra had met Singh at BJP State president KV Singh Deo’s daughter’s marriage reception in Bhubaneswar where Mishra reportedly approached him to join the BJD.
Following the ouster of Pyarimohan Mohapatra from the BJD, Mishra appears to be steadily emerging closer to Naveen Patnaik. He was seen flanking the party supremo on May 39, 2012. A day after Mohapatra’s alleged coup bid against Patnaik’s leadership took place.
Pinaki Mishra, a brilliant lawyer, too played a key role in trying to save the Naveen Patnaik Government from the mining scam. He paraded a battery of legal luminaries before the Shah Commission which was investigating the mining scam in the State.
It is, however, another matter that the Shah Commission has given clinching observations in its report regarding the role of the BJD Government in the scam.
Mishra, who is basically based in New Delhi and has a wide network in the national capital, is also expected to play an effective role on Naveen Patnaik’s behalf in the formation of the new Government at the Centre.
Mishra seems to have almost outsmarted Minister and recently-elected Rajya Sabha member Kalpataru Das, hitherto Patnaik’s Man Friday after Pyarimohan Mohapatra’s fall. The latest buzz in political circles is Mishra may be the BJD lok Sabha nominee from Bhubaneswar and he will be given a free hand to choose his successor for the Puri constituency.