BHUBANESWAR: Sharing a platform by leaders of erstwhile Janata Dal and Biju loyalists here recently has the political grapevine ticking. The lineup of ‘old pals’ and all exuding a rare bonhomie have triggered speculation about a possible change in the political equations in the State. The occasion was a meeting on the multi-crore mining scam. But there seemed to be more than just a meeting. The leaders, who attended it, included the outspoken BJD dissident Damodar Rout, former Union minister Braja Kishore Tripathy, Union minister Srikant Jena and senior Congress leader Narasingh Mishra. Barring Mishra, all others have fallen out of favour with the leaderships of their respective parties. Jena had even sulked for several days after the last reshuffle in the Union Cabinet as he was not elevated to Cabinet rank. Talks of a possible revival of the Janata Dal(U) in the State are doing the rounds for several months. The meeting has fuelled such speculation and the presence of State JD(U) president Chitta Ranjan Mohanty added credence to it. This comes at a time when the prime parties are undergoing political upheavals. Cracks are visible in the BJD, a section of the Congressmen are disillusioned with their leadership and the BJP is bogged down by factionalism like never before. Though the idea of a fresh alignment is nebulous, it depends on the growing fissures in the BJD and discontentment against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. However, such possibility as of now has been dismissed forthwith. Chances of Jena and Mishra switching loyalty look remote. Rout, going hammer and tongs against his colleagues, has been cautiously avoiding direct criticism of Naveen. And Tripathy is the only politician who is not with any party for now. He was denied ticket by the BJD in 2009 general elections, and joined BJP. Even though he has not resigned formally from the BJP, he has dissociated himself from the party. Sources in the BJD said old hands sidelined by Naveen may look for greener pastures. Mishra, however, ruled out any politics in the meeting. The significance of the meeting was that all agreed to the Congress view that privatisation of mines should be stopped and a CBI probe ordered into the mining scam. For his part, Rout maintained that all the leaders had attended the meeting to speak on the mining scam.
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