Pyari flexes muscles

BHUBANESWAR: The rift in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) involving two power centres on Tuesday reached a new high with more than 25 MLAs, including three ministers allegedly belonging to the camp of aggrieved Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra, meeting at his residence precipitating the woes of the Naveen group.Mohapatra, who had of late fallen out with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, chose to strike back when the the CM is on a week-long tour of London.  The camp of the second power centre claimed that they have the support of 62 MLAs. Sources said the MLAs are camping at different places, including Visakhapatnam and some hotels in Bhubaneswar. They will reach the capital at the right time, a Pyari supporter said. A signature campaign is reported to have been launched to be placed before the Governor.The gameplan is to dethrone Naveen before his return from London with the support of 27 Congress MLAs. Senior Congress leaders maintained that central leaders are likely to reach the State on Wednesday to monitor the situation.Speculation about an imminent split in the BJD continued throughout the day even as ministers and MLAs in groups marched in and out of Mohapatra’s residence in open defiance of Naveen. Those who met Mohapatra included Deputy Speaker Sananda Marandi, Minister for Women and Child Development Anjali Nayak, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Sarada Nayak, Minister of State for Commerce and Transport Sanjib Sahu, former ministers Bishnu Das and Aurobindo Dhali. The lone CPI MLA Adikanda Sethi also met Mohapatra. The meeting continued till late into the night.While some of those who attended the meeting, however, maintained that they had congregated to discuss strategy for Odisha bandh on May 31, others asserted that they will never allow the party to split. Pyari loyalist Prabhat Biswal volunteered to tell mediapersons after coming out of the meeting, “Some people are trying to break the party and we will never allow that.”Political observers maintain that the meeting was a show of strength of the Pyari group and may lead the party towards a split. Though there are speculations that  Pyari supporters will go to Raj Bhawan on Wednesday to formalise the split, there is no word yet either from any BJD or  Congress leader in this regard.A Pyari supporter maintained that Naveen is rushing back in view of the political crisis. However, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Surjya Narayan Patro said the Chief Minister will not return before schedule. He claimed that he called up Naveen and discussed the emerging situation with him.Naveen loyalists also met tonight at a secret place to finalise their strategy to deal with the crisis. Sources said Naveen has asked some of his loyalists to meet at Naveen Nivas for a show of strength. Those who attended the meeting at Naveen camp included several ministers. Sources, however, said some of them will cross over to Pyari group during the show of strength.