Biju Janata Dal: Naveen Patnaik faces revolt at home

BHUBANESWAR: Rebellion broke out in the Biju Janata Dal, with 27 MLAs and three ministers huddling against party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik for his autocratic style of functioning.

The rebels met at the residence of Rajya Sabha MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra in the state capital. Patnaik had recently sidelined Mohapatra, known as ‘uncle’ in political circles.

According to one of the MLAs who took part in the meeting, Mohapatra’s intention was to take stock of loyalist legislators, if he were to broker a deal with opposition parties to form an alternate government. However, according to another rebel MLA, Mohapatra would be satisfied if Patnaik ends his ‘one-upmanship.’

This is the worst crisis for Patnaik since BJD came to power in 2000. The rebel meeting was held when Patnaik was in London to attract foreign investments to resource-rich Odisha.

He is scheduled to return to the state on Friday. BJD has 103 MLAs in the assembly and the support of four National Congress Party MLAs in the 147-member assembly. Forming an alternate government is not an easy task to achieve if Mohapatra has the support of only 30 MLAs.

The ministers who attended the meeting were food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sarada Nayak, women and child development minister Anjali Behera, transport minister Sanjib Sahoo. Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi was also present in the meeting. Among prominent MLAs who turned up were Mukund Sodi, Bibhuti Balabanta Ray, Susant Singh, Sanjib Pradhan, Srinath Soren, Manoranjan Sethi, Rajendra Sahoo, Bhagaban Kanhar, Sarojini Hemraum, Kamalakant Nayak, Jiban Pradip Das, Sudarsan Jena and Pravat Biswal.

The MLAs refused to officially speak to the media on what transpired at the meeting.