MPs give Naveen a sleepless night

The rebel MPs include the three suspended MPs, Kumudini Patnaik, Jagannath Mallick and Prabhat Samantray, Prasanna Acharya — who they elected as their new leader — along with Prasanna Patsani and Bhatruhari Mahtab.

The group loyal to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is now left with four MPs — Union Water Resources Minister Arjun Charan Sethi, Union Minister of State for Steel Braja Kishore Tripathy, Trilochan Kanungo and Padmanabha Behera.

The six dissident MPs had met Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee in New Delhi last month to put forth the demands of their state. Soon after, three of them were suspended. The dissidents had announced that they will change the BJD leadership within two months.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik went into a huddle with senior leaders of the party after reports of the split reached here. The party is yet to officially react to the split. Talking to mediapersons here, Patnaik said: ‘‘I am as much in the dark as you are. I have not been informed about it,’’ he told mediapersons.

He said most of the MPs were here till yesterday and had met him. ‘‘I do not know why the development has taken place,’’ he said, adding that the party will take a decision only after getting ‘‘appropriate’’ information.

Secretary General of the party, Damodar Rout also refused to comment on the development. ‘‘I have informed the Chief Minister and he is probing it,’’ Rout said, adding that it was yet to be found out if suspended MPs could be party to taking decisions relating to leadership of the parliamentary group.