BJD rebels drag issue to court

After hearing the counsels of the rebel BJD leaders and the party chief, the court posted the matter till tomorrow for further hearing. The two suspended MPs, Tathagat Satpathy and Prabhat Samantaray and the five expelled MLAs, Prabhat Tripathy, Kalpataru Das, Bishnu Das, Bijoyshree Routray and Surya Narayan Patra pleaded before the court to issue an adinterim injunction against the opposite party Naveen Patnaik directing him not to give effect to the suspension andexpulsion orders.

With the issue spilling over to the court, efforts to reach a patch-up between the two warring factions, one led by the suspended chairman of political affairs committee PAC Bijoy Mohapatra and the other comprising loyalists of the party president, received yet another jolt.

Although Mohapatra had also been suspended, his name did not figure among the plaintiffs. Describing Patnaik8217;s order as illegal and arbitrary, the petitioners prayed to the court to restrain him from preventing them to function as members of the BJD and participating in its day to day functions and activities during the pendency of the suit.

They should be allowed to carry on their political functions as elected MPs and MLAs of the BJD unaffected by the party chief8217;s order, they said.

The petitioners contended that the power of expulsion and suspension could be exercised by the party president only with the prior approval of the PAC which had not been done in the present case.

The order of the presidentamounted to a punishment which was beyond his jurisdiction and not sustainable in law, they said.

Quoting party rules, they said they had neither been issued any show cause notice nor given a chance of hearing. Only the disciplinary action committee of the party was the body authorised to impose any punishment, they contended.

BJD chief Patnaik, who had already requested the Lok Sabha speaker, G M C Balayogi to treat the two suspended party MPs as unattached members of the house, had expressed confidence in Delhi earlier in the day that the party would not split.

8220;I do not anticipate any split in the party. Our party will overcome the problem, he said. Patnaik, who left for Delhi yesterday, is expected to arrive here later tonight.

A group of senior leaders, belonging to both camps, held a meeting last night to arrive at a concensus formula to avert the impasse. However, party sources said there had not been much progress in the matter.

The rebel leaders also continued their parleys to chalk outtheir common strategy in the face of the crack down by the leadership.