Patnaik denies rift among party MPs

Odisha Chief Minister and ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday strongly denied that there was a rift among the party MPs on contentious issues and they were speaking in different voices on public forums. 

“Not at all”, said Patnaik’s when mediapersons asked him whether there was a fissure in the BJD’s parliamentary party. He was informally speaking to newspersons at his residence after chairing an important meeting of the party MPs belonging to both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. 

In the last few days, on more than one occasion, the BJD MPs were seen speaking differently while reacting to local TV news channels on different subjects, particularly on the issue of the controversy surrounding the land acquisition bill.  

While some of the MPs had supported the BJP-led NDA government’s move to amend the bill, a few others, including party’s leader in the Lok Sabha Bhatruhari Mahtab, had opposed it.