Bhubaneswar: The BJD president, Naveen Patnaik, has been facing the challenge of keeping his flock together since the party’s debacle in twin polls when it drew a blank in the Lok Sabha for the first time, and was reduced to 51 seats in the 147-strong state assembly.
On Thursday, Naveen reprimanded Champua MLA Sanatan Mahakud for missing legislature meeting and directly asked whether he was leaning towards the BJP.
The brief conversation took place as the BJD supremo arrived at the Odisha Legislative Assembly around 10.50 am ahead of the budget session. Spotting Mahakud, he enquired about his absence from the BJD legislature party meeting the previous day.
“Why didn’t you attend the party meeting yesterday?” he asked in Hindi.
Citing health reasons, Mahakud said: “I wasn’t keeping well.”
Not convinced with his reply, Naveen promptly asked, “Have you come today to see the BJP CM?”
Later speaking to the media, Mahakud rubbished all speculation regarding a change in his political allegiance. “The BJD supremo mentioned nothing about switching sides to BJP. Mohan Majhi is the CM of the state and therefore, I meet him to ensure development in my region. He had visited Champua which my constituency. There was a cake cutting ceremony after which he feed me a piece of cake. Please, avoid reading too much into it,” he said.
Reacting to the development, senior BJP leader Jaynarayan Mishra said that Naveen is sacred about losing partymen after the poll debacle. “The BJD is on the verge of collapse. One signal from the BJP central leadership and the party will break into pieces,” he told reporters.
Earlier, two Rajya Sabha MPs of BJD – Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar – had quit the party within one month and joined the BJP amid growing disquiet in the regional party.
Following which, the BJD accused the BJP of having launched ‘Operation Lotus‘ to engineer defections and weaken the party.
