One minister from Orissa likely

Times of India, May 19, 2009

BHUBANESWAR: Congress is likely to induct one MP from Orissa into the Union Cabinet. The names doing the rounds are that of former chief minister
Hemananda Biswal, Srikanta Jena, Bhakta Charan Das and Amarnath Pradhan. While Jena and Das have been Union ministers earlier, Biswal is former chief minister and Pradhan a minister of state.

Congress has six MPs from Orissa. The others elected from the state are Pradeep Kumar Majhi and Sanjay Bhoi.

But partymen are not worried at how many of the six could be accommodated in the ministry or whether or not they will get Cabinet berths. They are optimistic because Congress will pick up someone for the ministry because the party has a grand plan to strengthen its national network post-election. This in scheme of things Rahul Gandhi is being projected to play the directional role.

Such a move is likely to give a boost to the sagging morale of Congress in the state, they feel. The party in Orissa had fielded candidates in all 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats, of whom only 27 and six won respectively. The BJD systematically wiped out all its top-ranking leaders. The Congress vote share also fell by over seven per cent in the Lok Sabha seats, denting a blow to its traditional vote bank both in tribal and non-tribal regions.

The Congress fears that Naveen Patnaik managing to return to power for the third consecutive term could take the party the UP way. "We have a strong leadership problem. All our top leaders have poor public image. They also conducted themselves more than BJD point men in our party, remaining mum to speak out anytime though failings were galore with the government. They also did little to strengthen the party in the state. A berth in the Union government could hold some ray of hope," a senior Congress leader said.

"If we have a minister he would be groomed as a strong deterrent against Naveen in the state," he said.

Congress leaders also feel emboldened in the manner in which some of the party nominees won the elections. Not just surmounting the "Naveen surge" they even at places had to battle out odds within the party to win. Bhakta, who had been leading an anti-Vedanta war in Kalahandi district for years, was kept on hanging till the last minute. He proved his worth by winning the seat by a margin of over 1.5 lakh. Srikanta was parceled to fight in Balasore, where he barely knew anyone. Hemananda was fielded with little hope that he could beat Jual Oram of BJP, while Amarnath was a late entrant as a candidate for the Sambalpur seat.