Suspense over who would fill the Rajya Sabha vacancy caused by the resignation of state planning board vice-chairperson, Bishnu Das, continues. Now that the chief minister has himself ruled out the possibility of his sister and well known author, Geeta Mehta accepting any political role, the guess has narrowed down to some former bureaucrats and politicians. Among the bureaucrats the names of former chief secretary, BK Patnaik and Jharkhand cadre IAS, Santosh Satpathy are doing the rounds of political circles. The buzz is that the chief minister, rattled by his party’s below par showing in the recent rural polls, is looking for a trusted advisor who can manage both political and bureaucratic affairs on his behalf, something that late Rajya Sabha member, Pyarimohan Mohapatra did at one point of time. Everyone is waiting for the chief minister’s next move.
