Will Orissa get another berth?

BHUBANESWAR: With speculation rife about the reshuffle of Union Cabinet next week, State Congress leaders expect induction of at least one more minister from the State.Even though Congress has six MPs from the State, it is represented by only one minister of state, Srikant Jena, in the Cabinet. In the last expansion of the Cabinet, Orissa had drawn a blank. This time around, senior Congress leaders believe that at least one more minister of state will be sworn in from the State.Sources said those in the reckoning include former chief minister Hemananda Biswal, former president of the Orissa Pradesh Youth Congress Pradip Majhi and former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das. However, chances of former minister Amarnath Pradhan and Sanjay Bhoi cannot be ruled out.All the five MPs are from the Western Orissa and predominantly tribal districts. The Congress’ showing in these areas was quite good as the BJD could not gain a foothold in this region in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The Lok Sabha constituencies in which the Congress candidates won include Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Sambalpur, Bargarh and Sundargarh. The party had been able to win only Balasore seat, represented by Jena, in the coastal Orissa.Sources said the party rank and file is quite disappointed as none of the MPs from these was made a minister in the UPA-II. It was expected that Orissa will get a Cabinet rank minister in the first reshuffle. But that demand was also ignored.Several senior leaders maintain that injustice has been done to Orissa by the party. Comparing with other states, they said that there should be at least one Cabinet minister in the next expansion.The BJD and the BJP, however, maintain that Orissa Congress leaders are never treated well by the Central party. They maintained that representation of Orissa in the non-Congress governments at the Centre is always good.The BJD leaders allege that it is another instance of Central negligence of the state. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Raghunath Mohanty and president of the Biju Yuva Janata Dal (BYJD) Sanjay Dasburma had even demanded at a media conference that there should at least be a Cabinet minister from Orissa at the Centre.