Now that the Presidential election is over, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has turned his attention to ministry reshuffle.
Sources said the Chief Minister is taking such a long time in finalising the new team of ministers as this will be the last major change before the 2014 election.
Talks of a reshuffle have been doing the rounds for the last two months because of the five vacancies in the ministry. Though late, the fact that Naveen has started the cleansing process has become evident from the Friday’s IAS reshuffle and last week’s IPS shake-up.
Besides dismissing three ministers for their alleged role in May 29 failed coup attempt against him, Naveen had also removed heads of three State-run public sector undertakings (PSUs) and a member of the Planning Board considered close to Rajya Sabha Member Pyarimohan Mohapatra last week. Chiefs of 24 cooperative bodies were also removed on Wednesday which is also seen as part of the purging process. These included president of the Odisha State Cooperative Bank (OSCB), Jagneswar Babu.
As the cleansing process is almost over except some organisational changes at the district level of the BJD, Naveen faces the daunting task of the ministry reshuffle.
The new team, which will be in place, will also steer the party to the urban body polls scheduled next year. As Naveen will be seeking a fourth term in office in 2014, observers believe that the situation will be different from the last three polls.
While the BJD had fought 2000 and 2004 polls with the BJP as its alliance partner, the party had swept the 2009 polls by making token seat adjustments with the NCP, the CPI and the CPM.
Even as talks about the ministry reshuffle is on, the statement of Pyari on this issue has given rise to a fresh round of speculation. Pyari, at a Rajya Sabha assurance committee meeting here, said in response to a question that if ‘Pyari loyalists’ are sacked in the reshuffle, than the Chief Minister will not be there. A loyalist is one who is under the influence of somebody and the Chief Minister was said to be under my influence, he said.
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