Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik is the only chief minister in the country who showed the door to as many 13 ministers and a speaker in the last five years.
Orissa chief minister Naveen Patnaik is the only chief minister in the country who showed the door to as many 13 ministers and a speaker in the last five years.
Some ministers were thrown out for petty reasons, simply to keep Naveen’s image intact. But none dared revolt. And this is going to pay dividends, with elections round the corner. Already, the BJD swept both the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack civic polls.
“Naveen has set guidelines. If anybody violates these, action is taken,” said Biju Janata Dal general secretary and panchayati raj minister Raghunath Mohanty. Naveen had told members that he can tolerate everything but no one would be spared if their action brought disgrace to the party and government, said Mohanty. “Naveen has set a laxman rekha for every one,” said energy minister Surjya Naryan Patro.
Earlier, excise minister Kalindi Charan Behera and water resources minister Rabi Narayan Nanda were ousted on charges of corruption. While Behera was ousted for the Ganjam liquor tragedy, Nanda’s voice was recorded by the Opposition when he demanded money to raise a question in the assembly.
Another stalwart, health and family welfare minister Bijayshree Routray, son of a former chief minister, resigned after the World Bank indicated that he took a bribe of Rs5 lakh to sign a file.
Even school and mass education minister Nagendra Pradhan was shown the door for corruption. Bishnu Charan Das, who took over from Pradhan as school and mass education minister, too, had to quit as charges were labelled against him for manipulating his son’s answer script in the matriculation examination.
Women and child welfare minister Pramila Mallick and labour and employment minister Pradeep Kumar Naik were ousted on charges of violating the code of election conduct. But both managed to come back.
No reason was cited when Naveen forced panchayati raj and culture minister Damodar Rout and tribal welfare minister Balabhadra Majhi to resign.
It is believed, Rout paid the price for opposing the Posco project coming up in his constituency. Majhi was ousted for alleged involvement in a sex scandal. Reporters had once asked Naveen if Majhi had AIDS.
Information and public relations minister Debasis Nayak and revenue minister Manmohan Samal were sacked over charges of sexual impropriety. Naveen was forced to oust steel and mines minister Padmanabha Behera when people from Kandhamal demanded his scalp over the communal violence there.
Higher education minister Samir Dey, it is said, resigned after the BJP faced a humiliating defeat in the Cuttack civic polls. But in political circles it is rumoured that he was forced to resign for alleging that Naveen’s popularity was backed by the strength of black money.
Besides the minister, Speaker of the Orissa assembly Maheswar Mohanty had to resign for alleged involvement in a sex scandal.
In his first tenure, Naveen had sacked four minister — Nalinikanta Mohanty, Ramkrushna Patnaik, Kamala Das and Prasant Nanda — for corruption. All of them later joined the Congress. But only Mohanty managed to return to the assembly.
Senior journalist and vice-president of the National Union of Journalists Prasanna Kumar Mohanty said Naveen did all these to boost his image. Congress MLA Nalinikanta Mohanty said no one other than Naveen himself believes all of them were corrupt.
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