The Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik seems to have send out a clear signal to his detractors through yesterdays cabinet reshuffle either fall in line or face marginalisation.
The cabinet reshuffle, the first in the current tenure of J B Patnaik saw only one change stripping the senior cabinet minister K C Lenka of the important revenue portfolio and giving it to a new entrant to the ministry, Jagannath Patnaik. Lenka had earlier been divested of commerce and civil aviation departments. He now holds only the transport department.
Lenka has been the most vocal opponent of some of Patnaiks policies. Speculations had been rife about the timing of such a move. Patnaik seems to have got the approval of the high command on the issue during the recent AICC session in Calcutta.
Patnaik was reluctant to induct Lenka into his ministry when the Congress regained power in the state in 1995, considering Lenkas attempt to project himself as an alternate power center. But following pressures from the then party high command, with whom Lenka had built up a good rapport during his stint as a Union Minister in the Narashima Rao government, Lenka was accommodated in the state cabinet.
He, however, seems to have displeased the Chief Minister, when he lodged complaints against Patnaiks wife Jayanti Patnaik, MP, for interfering in the party affairs of his constituency, Choudwar. The animosity between Lenka and Patnaiks wife reached a flash point with Jayantis supporters attacking him during one of his visits to the constituency.
Lenka not only publicly demanded an action against Jayanti but also drew the attention of the high commend to the issue.
Some of Lenkas actions taken as the revenue minister, such as eviction of encroachers engaged in prawn farming, exposing land scandals in Puri, Bhubaneswar and Choudwar, had not gone well with the Chief Minister as some of his close associates were victims of this action. Apart from this, Lenka had also lost his support base in the high command during the recent election for the AICC chief post in which he supported Rajesh Pilot against Sitaram Kesri.
Lenka seems to have no intention of quitting the cabinet. The changing of portfolios is the Chief Ministers prerogative, he said in a press statement yesterday, but added that he felt hurt for not being consulted on the issue.
