3 MPs meet Naveen, spark speculation on Das Burma

Bhubaneswar: Three BJD Lok Sabha member separately met chief minister Naveen Patnaik at his office here on Saturday sparking speculation that Naveen has sought his colleagues feedback on the Sanjay Das Burma controversy.
Lok Sabha members Tathagata Satpathy, Pinaki Mishra and Kalikesh Singhdeo met Naveen one after the other.
While Satpathy told reporters that he had come to the CM to discuss about drinking water problem of his constituency (Dhenkanal), Singhdeo said he had some other work.
Mishra left the secretariat from a different gate, which the waiting mediapersons realised much later.
Satpathy, who likened Das Burma to a rat and BJD to a godown on Friday, said on Saturday that journalists are the giant rats.
"Being a journalist myself, I don't like to rear cats," he said, avoiding a direct reply on fate of the food supplies and consumer welfare minister, who is under CBI scanner for his alleged links with a chit fund company.
Singhdeo avoided a making comment on Das Burma.
"I am not the appropriate person to respond such a query. The right person is the chief minister himself," the Balangir MP said.
A source said the CM gave his piece of mind to Satpathy for bluntly criticising Das Burma, who is also the party's youth wing president. A senior BJD leader, however, denied this.
He pointed out that had that been true, Naveen would have ventilated his ire to MPs Bhartruhari Mahtab and Nagendra Pradhan and excise minister Damodar Rout, who also spoke against Das Burma.
Mahtab, the party's parliamentary party leader in the LS, had recently described opposition demand for Das Burma's resignation on moral grounds as a good suggestion.
Bringing a mythological context on why Naveen should sack Das Burma, Pradhan, the Sambalpur MP, had said "Lord Ram sent Sita on exile knowing fully well that she was sacred. The excise minister has on many occasions raised morality issue, indirectly advocating the minister's sacking".
It will remain tricky for Naveen to take a call on Das Burma, considered crucial for consolidating the party's youth base.
Moreover, sacking Das Burma would embolden Das Burma's arch rival and Congress leader Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, a bitter critic of Naveen.
Party sources said Naveen will wait and watch for some more time.