Senior BJP leaders, Bijay Mohapatra and Dilip Ray had joined the party together and seem to be drifting away from it as a pair. While Mohapatra seems to have made quite a few enemies in the top rung of the state party by opening a front against union minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ray, the party MLA from Rourkela, has been quite vocal about the unfulfilled promises in his constituency. Sometime ago he had embarrassed the party leadership by boycotting an important BJP function in Rourkela which was supposed to be attended by a central minister who was forced to cancel the trip at the last moment. The talk in the BJP circles is that Mohapatra and Ray having spent quite sometime in the BJD are finding it hard to adjust themselves in the saffron party. March 16-31, 2017
