Dissidents in BJD step up offensive to oust Patnaik

They plan to hold public rallies in the state to mobilise support for their oust-Naveen campaign. Besides the six rebel MPs, expelled BJD leader and former Union minister Dilip Ray has also plunged headlong into the campaign. Ray had cocked a snook at Patnaik when he managed to win his Rajya Sabha seat some time back as an Independent against the BJD candidate.

This is the most serious challenge to Patnaik’s authority which has been waning gradually in the face of a concerted attack from the dissidents. The dissidence has been simmering in the party ever since the Chief Minister undertook a ministerial reshuffle which left many a bigwig unhappy.

Even as the dissidents in the state carried on with their moves against Patnaik, the rebels in the parliamentary party staged a coup of sorts when they recently ousted Union Minister for Water Resources Arjun Charan Sethi, a Patnaik supporter, as the leader of party in Lok Sabha.

The rebels have been consistently voicing their protest against Patnaik’s style of functioning saying that he took decisions without consulting the senior party leaders and relied mainly on the advice of a few bureaucrats. ‘‘This is alienating the party from the people,’’ sources in the rebel group said.

They are also sore with Patnaik for initiating the first step towards the proposal to disinvest Nalco in his erstwhile avatar as Union Minister for Steel and Mines. ‘‘While he adopted an indifferent attitude towards matters concerning Orissa, we took up the coal royalty issue with the PM during the Budget session of Parliament,’’ these sources said.