Bhubaneswar: A day after senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mamata Mohanta joining the ruling BJP, the regional party on Friday held a meeting apparently to keep its flocks together.
Senior BJP leader Arabinda Dhali claimed that more BJD leaders will switch sides.
Mohanta quit her party on Wednesday, hours after she resigned as a Rajya Sabha MP. She joined the saffron party on Thursday.
The BJP came to power in the state in June defeating the BJD which ruled Odisha for 24 years in a row.
BJD MP Sulata Deo, however, dismissed the possibility, claiming that the party’s eight MPs in the Upper House of Parliament are together.
“There has been horse trading in the Mamata Mohanta case. But, there cannot be leader trading from BJD. All our leaders are solidly with (party president) Naveen Patnaik,” Deo, a Rajya Sabha MP said in a video message.
BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra also claimed that the BJD MPs in Rajya Sabha are committed to their party and the leader.
After attending a meeting of grass root level leaders of Mayurbhanj district, senior leader and former MLA Uma Samantray said that one MP has changed her affiliation due to “allurement and conspiracy”.
Mohanta’s resignation from the BJD and Rajya Sabha will have no impact on the party, Samantray claimed.
“People of Odisha regret having voted Naveen Patnaik out of power and they also express gratitude to him for all the good works he has done for the state,” he said.
On the other hand, Arabinda Dhali alleged that resentment is brewing within BJD.
“A regional party degenerates once its founder becomes sick or anything else happens… The BJP is a national party and it will survive all odds,” he told reporters here.
Meanwhile, the BJD women’s wing held a rally at Baripada, the district headquarters of Mayurbhanj district, where they burnt effigies of Mohanta accusing her of betraying her Kudumi community and people of Odisha, particularly the women.
Biju Mahila Janata Dal state general secretary Sabita Behera, who led the women rally at Baripada said, “Naveen Babu had sent Mohanta from “Palli” (village) to Delhi as she hailed from Kudumi community and a woman as well. However, she has betrayed all of us. The people will teach her a lesson.”
On Thursday, a large number of women belonging to Kudumi community had staged a similar protest rally at Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj district where they too burnt an effigy of Mohanta.
Sources in the BJD also said that the party is now closely watching the political developments after Mohanta joined the BJP.
“The party has decided to hold meetings of grass root level leaders from all the districts,” a senior leader said.
PTI