BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday appointed former ministers Pratap Jena and Sanjay Dasburma as observers for Kendrapara and Bhadrak districts respectively, throwing a hint that the two leaders, sidelined within the party for a long period are now back in favour.
Jena, a former Law and Panchayati Raj Minister and Dasburma, former deputy chairperson of Odisha State Planning Board were dropped in June 2022 when the chief minister reshuffled his cabinet. Jena’s exclusion from the cabinet followed after he was named as an accused in the Mahanga double murder case.
The process of rehabilitating him started after he was appointed the district observer of Bhadrak in March this year. By appointing him as the observer of an important district like Kendrapara, the BJD leadership has asserted it will stand by him despite the Opposition’s clamour for his head in the double murder case.
Jena’s appointment as a district observer came on a day when he received temporary relief in the double murder case with the Orissa High Court ordering no coercive action should be taken against him till December 19.BJD sources, however, maintained Jena was given the responsibility of an important district like Kendrapara as he is not keeping well nowadays. The decision has been taken as the district is nearer to his Assembly constituency Mahanga.
The post of Kendrapara district observer had fallen vacant after Pramila Mallik was elected as the speaker of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. Dasburma’s case is, however, somewhat different. A part of the decision-making team of BJD before the 2019 elections, after his defeat in the polls he fell out of the party leadership’s favour. He almost raised a banner of revolt against the leadership by alleging a powerful faction within the party had conspired against him.
Sources, however, maintained acute factionalism in the Puri district BJD and the growing organisational clout of the BJP forced the regional outfit’s leadership to appease the former minister. Dasburma’s close circle maintained that he was also contemplating quitting BJD after there were reports that the party was promoting a BJP leader to replace him.