Bhubaneswar: Senior BJP leader Jayanarayan Mishra on Friday predicted split in Biju Janata Dal (BJD), grappling with rising internal discontent after curtains came down on its 24-year rule in Odisha.
Speaking to the media, the Sambalpur MLA said that BJD leaders are in touch with BJP and will soon be switching camps. “There will be only Congress and non-Congress parties in the state. Congress is also dormant but BJD will cease to exist,” he said.
Union Minister and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram seconded Jayanarayan’s claim. “Several BJD leaders are in touch with us but I cannot divulge the names,” he said.
Earlier in the day, senior Congress leader and former Barabati-Cuttack MLA Mohammed Moqium had also said that several leaders from the BJD will also join the Congress after formation of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee.
In his counter, BJD leader Lenin Mohanty termed these remarks as daydreaming. “Some national parties instead of keep their house in order are blank firing without any basis. I would advice them to concentrate on fulfilling their primary responsibilities,” he said.
This came a day after veteran BJD leader Amar Satpathy claimed that several members are getting ready to quit the regional party. “While two Rajya Sabha members have quit the party, many others are in the line,” he said, questioning BJD president Naveen Patnaik about the pathetic situation in the party witnessing internal strife which has heated up the political atmosphere in the state.
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State BJP president Manmohan Samal had also claimed that the regional party will become empty of leaders soon.
Former Bhubaneswar MP Prasanna Patasani, who had quit the regional outfit to join the BJP before the elections this year, recently attributed the current turmoil in BJD to former bureaucrat and then chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s close aide V K Pandian. He added that BJD leaders were disassociating themselves from the party, saying that it had become suffocating for anybody to continue in the regional outfit.