"Secular forces may aid Cong to form new govt"

Patnaik, however, did not elaborate further on the matter. He also parried questions as to whether the Congress had started negotiations with regional parties to form a government.

The Chief Minister, who is also a Congress Working Committee member firmly ruled out the possibility of some Congress MPs joining the Bharatiya Janata Party. Such rumours have no basis, he added.

Patnaik admitted that some first timer MPs did not want a fresh election.

Having returned to Bhubaneswar this morning from New Delhi after seven days, Patnaik may return to New Delhi in the evening or tomorrow morning. "I will return to New Delhi to attend the meeting of the Inter State Council scheduled for tomorrow", he added.

Patnaik avoided the issue of midterm polls. He was silent to the question as to whether elections were round the corner. He said that the Congress should not be blamed for forcing an election on the people.

Alleging that the UF was taking the Congress support for granted, the CM said that it was the Front which should be held responsible for forcing an election on the country. The UF should be blamed for the crisis for not budging from its stand not to drop the DMK ministers, he maintained.

Referring to the Jain Commission’s indictment of DMK and Karunanidhi, Patnaik said that the Commission had gone through massive evidences before coming to this conclusion and there was no question of another judge to study the same. "Our only demand is that the DMK ministers should be dropped from the cabinet", he added.