The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and former Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik seems to have softened his stance on the controversy triggered by the Centre’s delimitation move as he has decided to skip the Chennai meet, called by Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin, on Saturday.

Naveen, who was supposed to attend the meeting, has assigned the responsibility to two of his party colleagues — former minister Sanjay Dasburma and former Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik.

The party said in a release: “The party president, Naveen Patnaik, has nominated former MP Dr Amar Patnaik and former minister Sanjay Dasburma to attend the joint action committee meet on delimitation, which Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin convened on Saturday.”

Two senior DMK leaders — Lok Sabha member Dayanidhi Maran and Tamil Nadu industries minister TRB Rajaa — had called on Naveen at Naveen Niwas on March 11 to invite him to the meet that aims at the formation of a joint action committee to resist the Centre’s delimitation move. After Naveen’s meeting with the DMK leaders, BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra told the media that the BJD president had accepted Stalin’s invitation.

Mishra had told the reporters: “During the meeting with the Tamil Nadu delegation, Naveen has expressed his concern and said whatever needs to be done for the interest of the state would be done. Naveen has given his consent to attend the meeting called by Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin.”

Even Maran had claimed that Naveen would visit Chennai to attend the meet. Sources said that ever since BJD’s chief’s meeting with the DMK leaders in Bhubaneswar there have been back channel efforts by the BJP to dissuade him from visiting Chennai as his presence at the meet would lend more credibility to the opposition’s charges against the BJP-led NDA government on the issue.

While the BJP may now draw solace from the fact that Naveen is not personally visiting Chennai, the former chief minister has ensured that his party is represented at the meeting. Political analysts believe that Naveen, though disillusioned with the BJP in the wake of his party’s embarrassing defeat in the last elections, is still hesitant about joining the anti-BJP forces at the national level. He is trying to strike a balance between the two.

Before leaving for Chennai, BJD leader Dasburma said: “We will ensure that Odisha’s concerns over the delimitation issue are not sidelined.”

State BJP leader and minister Krushna Chandra Patra said: “The BJD is doing all this to protect its own interests. They can join any camp for this.”