Law Kumar Mishra
One major attempt was made allegedly by the then ruling UPA Government led by Dr Manmohan Singh in 2012 to topple Odisha Government headed by Naveen Patnaik.
Patnaik’s political advisor Pyarimohan Mohapatra was known as super Chief Minister who used to clear crucial files unofficially. He was also Secretary to former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik, but was not given extension in IAS while R N Das, IAS, the then Chief Secretary was given extension twice.
Biju Patnaik had explained that Das was very fast in clearing files, while Mohapatra sat over for long till he was ‘satisfied’. He was called to Mughalsarai Junction where all trains stop. Mohapatra traced the source of this name and got several vigilance cases registered against R N Das, IAS.
The then UPA government contacted Mohapatra for toppling the BJD government in Odisha when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was on tour to the UK. Mohapatra was given an offer to be made Chief Minister with the breakaway BJD and Congress alliance. To handle this, an ex-Director of Intelligence Bureau was sent to Odisha allegedly with huge money rumoured to be Rs 500 crore. He came to Cuttack on 27-5-2012 and stayed in IPS Mess Cuttack for a week to plan operations with help of the then DGP, Odisha.
About 50 MLA’s were ‘captured’ and kept isolated in Swosti Hotel, Bhubaneswar. Neither DGP, nor Commissioner of Police Bhubaneswar gave any hint to Naveen Patnaik. Athagarh MLA Raja Swain phoned him in London and the Chief Minister hurriedly came back. The operation to split BJD failed.
Another region of failure was rumour about serious irregularities committed by the handlers in the distribution of huge money given for ‘managing’ the MLAs.
In the recent episode, about 35 MLAs from Maharashtra’s Shiv Sena flew to Guwahati from Surat while Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was caught unaware.
Nandani Satpathy as Chief Minister of then Orissa had been alert and aborted a coup against her government by dissident Congress legislators led by her Revenue Minister Banka Bihari Das. She camped for hours at Bhadrak police station since morning when she came to know that a section of her ministers and MLAs were heading to Balasore for a secret meeting, obviously to plot to topple her ministry.
She instructed the police personnel to stand in the highway, watch movement of all cars carrying the “rebels” leaders, stop them and inform them “Madam is waiting for you in the police station”. Instructions were followed and one by one, all went inside the police station where the Chief Minister entertained them with tea and snacks.
She told them just one sentence, “Those willing to visit Balasore are free, but first resign here itself.” None moved ahead, all made a hasty retreat to Bhubaneswar. (As told by the iron lady herself).
In the late 70s when Nandani Satpathy was Chief Minister, communication like WhatsApp, SMS, FaceBook or mobile were not there like today. Nandani was successful, Udhav failed!
(The writer is a senior journalist and has worked with Times of India in Bhubaneswar)
