BJDLP splits, 5 expelled

BHUBANESWAR, Nov 16 (PTI) — The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa, a constituent of the Vajpayee government, plunged into a crisis today as its legislature party split with 15 of the 27 party legislators revolting against the party supremo and Union Steel and Mines Minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik.

Hitting back quickly, Mr Naveen Patnaik, who had formed the party, breaking away from Janata Dal barely a year ago, expelled five of the rebels from the party’s primary membership for six years on a charge of anti-party activities.

The rebel MLAs, supporters of senior BJD leader Mr Bijay Mahapatra, removed the BJDLP leader Mr Rama Krishna Patnaik, a Mr Naveen loyalist, and replaced him with Mr Prafulla Samal, capping weeks of smouldering dissidence against the organisational shake-up in the party carried out by the BJD president.

Mr Mohapatra, head of the BJD Political Affairs Committee, denied that their action had split the legislature group saying only Mr Rama Krishna Patnaik had been removed because he had "failed" to function as the leader of opposition and carry the legislators with him.

Neither Mr Naveen Patnaik nor Mr Rama Krishna Patnaik were available for comment.

Mr Mahapatra said the dissidents’ repeated requests to Mr Rama Krishna Patnaik to convene a meeting of the BJDLP to discuss the leadership issue went unheeded.

According to a report from New Delhi, after the split in the BJDLP, signs of division in the parliamentary party are also in evidence here ahead of the party’s state executive committee meeting in Bhubaneswar tomorrow.

Seven of the nine MPs belonging to the party are understood to have decided to keep away from tomorrow’s meeting convened by party Mr Naveen Patnaik to ratify the recent constitution of the 82-member executive.

Some of the seven dissident MPs preferring anonymity, said the parliamentary party was likely to split on the issue of change of leadership.

The MPs made a frontal attack on Mr Patnaik for his style of functioning in respect to the membership drive and implementation of the party’s action programme to counter policies of the J.B. Patnaik government.

The party’s Lok Sabha MPs — Bhatruhari Mahtab, Mr Tathagat Satpathy, Mr Prasanna Patsani and Mr Prabhat Samantaray, in separate letters, had asked the party president to postpone the state executive committee meeting and take steps to sort out differences between the rival factions.

Two party MLAs — Mr Panchanan Kanungo and Mr Praful Samal, also dashed of a joint letter to Mr Patnaik this evening with a similar plea.

The rebel BJD MLAs met the Assembly Speaker, Mr Chintamani Dyan Samantara, and submitted to him a letter informing him of the removal of Mr Rama Krishna Patnaik as the BJDLP leader and election of Mr Samal as his successor.

Mr Dyan Samantara confirmed that he had received a signed communication from the 15 legislators informing him about the "change " in the leadership of the BJD legislature wing.

The 15 MLAs who revolted are — Mr V. Sugyani Kumari Deo, Mr Bijoy Mohapatra, Mr Prafulla Samal, Mr Panchanan Kanungo, Mr Surya Narayan Patra, Mr Kalpataru Das, Mr Roshni Singhdeo, Mr Amar Satpathy, Mr Raghunath Mohanty, Mr Prabhat Tripathy, Mr Maheswar Mahanty, Mr Bijoyshree Routray, Mr Madhabananda Behera, Mr Debi Mishra and Mr Bishnu Das.

Mr Madhabananda Behera was elected as the chief whip by the rebels.

The MLAs expelled by Mr Naveen Patnaik are — Mr Suryanarayan Patra, Mr Kalpataru Das, Mr Prabhat Tripathy, Mr Bishnu Das and Mr Bijoyshree Routray from primary membership of the party for six years.