The BJD leadership landed in soup after the party’s Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra said he had voted in favour of the Waqf (Amendment) Bill.

Following this, the Congress targeted the BJD and alleged the party had made a deal with the BJP on the issue and that the party would merge with the BJP in the coming days.

Many senior BJD leaders were also aghast at the division within the party over their waqf bill stance, with some of its MPs voting in support of the bill.

The BJD has seven Rajya Sabha members and no representation in the Lok Sabha.

Sasmit Patra said: “The party had decided that the MPs were to vote according to their conscience and left it to the MPs to decide. I have not discussed this issue with the MPs so far. I have supported the bill.”

Earlier on X, Patra had said that “there is no party whip” and how the party has “entrusted its members with the responsibilities of exercising their conscience in the best interests of justice, harmony and the rights of all communities”.

Odisha Congress, in its X handle, wrote: “BJD MPs should have listened to the voice of their conscience and voted on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill. Their senior leader Sasmit Patra voted in favour of the government. They (the BJD) still have a tacit understanding. They cannot fool the people of Odisha by having a fixed bout. The Congress is the only alternative in Odisha.”

The Upper House passed the bill in the wee hours of Friday following a marathon discussion. 128 members voted in favour of the bill, while 95 members voted against it. Earlier, the Lok Sabha had given its nod to the bill.

Senior BJD leaders on Friday met at the party office (Sankha Bhawan) to apprise the party supremo Naveen Patnaik about the issue. The leaders wanted to find out what compelled the party not to issue a whip and allow its MPs to vote as per their “conscience”.

Former minister and senior BJD leader Badri Naryan Patra said: “There was a standing direction from the party president earlier that the MPs would vote against the waqf bill. Even our party MP Muna Khan spoke about it in the Rajya Sabha. It was also discussed at the iftar event. But we still cannot understand why some people voted in favour of the bill. There is a lot of confusion. Why did the party not issue a whip on this issue? Someone has played foul. We are yet to understand why some leaders opposed the bill and others supported it.”

Former minister Sashi Bhusan Behera said: “There was some confusion. Everything will be clarified only after discussing this issue with our leaders. The president will clear the air on this issue and make a decision.”

Leader Bhupinder Singh said: “We senior leaders are concerned. Why did such a thing happen? We will discuss this with our president.”

While BJD leaders were in a state of shock, the Congress took the opportunity to corner Naveen and his close aide, V. K. Pandian.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das alleged: “Both Naveen (Patnaik) and V.K. Pandian had recently visited Delhi. They had made a deal with the BJP to support the bill so that there would be no CBI probe into any of the cases during Naveen’s time. Naveen and Pandian will remain safe.”

He added: “Both Naveen and Pandian would join the BJP and make all the leaders sacrificial lambs.”

The Opposition started alleging Naveen’s “dual role” after Naveen skipped the Chennai meeting on March 22 called by Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin to garner support on the issue of delimitation.

Naveen, who was supposed to attend the meeting himself, refrained from going to Chennai and sent two of his party colleagues — former minister Sanjay Das Burma and former Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik to attend the meeting.

However, some BJD leaders are still saying that the party continues with its policy of maintaining equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress. “We are maintaining equidistance from both the NDA Block led by the BJP and India Block led by the Congress,” BJD MLA Sarada Prasanna Jena said.