BHUBANESWAR: With reports of cracks in the top brass of the BJD doing the rounds in political circles here, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has decided to attend meetings convened by party MLAs at various places in the coming days. With this Naveen aims to assert his authority over the organisation ahead of next year’s urban body polls. Sources said the organisational work will be started by the Chief Minister after his return from the UK trip. Though no BJD leader is prepared to go public regarding the reported differences between the Chief Minister and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra, the issue continues to dominate discussions in the BJD circles. Two meetings in the old town area of the City on Saturday and Sunday have added grist to the rumour mills. The first meeting was attended by Mohapatra, City Mayor Anant Narayan Jena and several councillors. Even though the meeting was held in the Old Town area of the City, no MLA attended. The second meeting was held the next day in which the Chief Minister and the three Bhubaneswar MLAs attended. There seems to be a vertical split in the City unit. Sources said the Chief Minister will take stock of the development after his return from the foreign jaunt. Some aspirants to ministerial posts hope that there will also be a reshuffle in the ministry in June. Though the Chief Minister has denied any possibility of a reshuffle now, these leaders maintain that the exercise cannot be deferred any longer. At least, the two vacancies in the ministry, caused due to resignation of Pradeep Maharathy and AU Singhdeo, would have to be filled up, several senior leaders maintained. These leaders said the Chief Minister would launch his organisational programmes after sorting out the problems in the party and the Government.
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