This Week Orissa: Strategic suspense

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has kept everyone guessing about the BJDs strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. A few days ago in New Delhi

Strategic suspense

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has kept everyone guessing about the BJDs strategy for the Lok Sabha elections. A few days ago in New Delhi,he ruled out any tie-up with the BJP,while terming a third front a very healthy option. The very next day,he said it was very early days for any discussion on a third front. Naveen,who severed ties with the BJP just before the 2009 assembly and Lok Sabha elections,is less keen on a third front than he used to be,after the Left parties started criticising him on industrialisation over the last four years. BJD sources say Naveen would rather hitch on to the party that comes to power at the Centre after the election,and seek a better bargain for Orissa. BJD MP Bhartruhari Mahtab has indicated the BJD may support a Narendra Modi-led BJP,if it comes to power.

A lonely Panda

breakaway Naxal leader Sabyasachi Panda is becoming lonelier by the day. Panda,who started the Odisha Maobadi Party after his expulsion from the CPIMaoist last year,has lost about 50 cadres in a year,most of them arrested or surrendered. Last Monday,camp follower Bighna Jagaranga surrendered before the Rayagada SP. On April 11,hardcore member Kandra Dalabehera alias Pater of Patachanchara was arrested during a joint operation by security forces. After his arrest,Kandra took the police team to a Maoist camp of Panda,and escaped. Police officials claim more members in the Panda camp are likely to surrender soon. His area is getting squeezed, said a senior police official.

Cops face MLA ire

Last week,leader of the BJP legislature party Jayanarayan Mishra and his supporters allegedly slapped a DSP-ranked officer in Sambalpur district when the officer was on duty during Hanuman Jayanti. Mishra and his BJP supporters were allegedly attempting to push a procession near a mosque. When some policemen deployed there did not allow the procession,Mishra and other BJP men allegedly assaulted and abused DSP J Senapati. Besides Mishra,former municipal chairman Girish Patel and BJP leader Siba Agarwal were booked after abusing and assaulting the cop. They have been booked under charges of unlawful assembly and obstructing government officials from discharging their duties.

No more toppers

In an effort to reduce unhealthy competition,Orissa has decided to do away with the top-100 merit list in the matriculation as well as the plus-2 examinations. Controversies have marked the top-100 list every year,leading to a discontinuation from this year by the Board of Secondary Education,which conducts the matriculation examination. We feel the top-100 list created a lot of unhealthy competition among students and their parents. Students go into a depression just because somebody else got into the toppers list as he scored one more mark, BSE president D P Nanda. The Council for Higher Secondary Education too has decided to discontinue its toppers list.