BJD President and LoP Naveen Patnaik who ruled the state for 24 years, has come up with the ‘Shadow Cabinet’ concept – a feature of the Westminster system of Government.

The ‘Shadow Cabinet’ concept was earlier implemented in some states including Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra by the Opposition. But, this is the first of its kind in Odisha.

Naveen has deployed his 50 MLAs to monitor activities in various departments. That will give a sense of empowerment to depleted BJD leaders who are morally down after the poll debacle. Can BJD derive political mileage from it? Let’s wait and watch.