BHUBANESWAR: The re-induction of Sudam Marndi in the council of ministers ahead of the 2024 elections appears to be a calculated move of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to placate the tribal leader and assuage his hurt feelings for the short shift he was given during the cabinet reshuffle last year.
The BJD president took everyone by surprise by bringing Marndi back into the cabinet after stripping him of an important portfolio like Revenue and Disaster Management during the first rejig of his council of ministers in his fifth term in June last year.
“It was obvious the performance of Marndi as Revenue minister was not up to the satisfaction of the chief minister due to which the former was shown the door. It is now difficult to fathom how he proved his merit to be picked up again after 11 months of exiting the cabinet,” sources in the BJD said.
The other element of surprise is even as many districts where the BJD swept all Assembly seats remain under-represented in the council of ministers whereas Mayurbhanj which has only three party MLAs from the nine seats is represented in the cabinet by two ministers. Besides Marndi, Basanti Hembram, a first-time MLA from Karanjia is the other minister from the district holding two portfolios of Women and Child Development and Mission Shakti.
For Marndi, a five-time MLA and one-time Lok Sabha MP from Mayurbhanj, who emerged as a powerful tribal leader from All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) movement in the late eighties, it was difficult to come to terms with the unceremonious ouster from the council of ministers.
After his exit from Naveen’s cabinet, reports were in circulation that the three-time Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA who switched over to the BJD before 2014 elections was contemplating to quit the regional party to join the BJP.
Perhaps the BJD leadership thought such move by Marndi would prove disastrous for the party which has a weak organisation in the district where Santhali voters constitute more than 20 percent of the total tribal votes.
“After Droupadi Murmu, who belongs to the predominant Santhal tribe, was elected as the President of India, the tribals are elated and favourably disposed towards the BJP. With elections less than a year away, the BJD cannot afford to displease Marndi, a Santhal and a popular leader of the community.
Taking him back in the ministry is an attempt to regain the lost ground,” admitted a BJD leader from the district. The other area of concern for the BJD is that BJP MP from Mayurbhanj Bishweswar Tudu is well represented in the NDA government at the Centre and is currently the Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs and Jal Shakti.