There is a State purohita with a difference. When most ‘State’ rank ones are unhappy that no worthwhile powers have been delegated to them, this one is happily telling all and sundry: “Once I was a member of the top team. I was like a peon those days. Although I am functioning at ‘State’ level now, I have been entrusted with responsible powers and functions.”

This State purohita while recounting his woes of the past would also refer to a kinsman of the former Lokka whom he had reason to fear.

However, members and purohitas hailing from the same district the State one comes from say that the latter was an intimate of the former strongman. “Now this worthy is disowning the former Lokka and his kinsmen in a bid to warm his way into graces of the powers that be,” they add.