Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: The BJD today gave the go-ahead to excise minister Damodar Rout's plan of organising a programme to commemorate the birth centenary of former chief minister Biju Patnaik on March 5 in Paradip.

Party spokesperson Pratap Deb today sought to distance the party from the statement made by BJD's Pratap Jena on Monday that it had not authorised Rout to hold such an event.

Rout has invited central leaders such as Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, UP strongman Mulayam Singh Yadav, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav and Union food and public distribution minister Ram Vilas Paswan to the event.

Deb accused the media of sensationalising the issue and trying to divide the BJD. "The issue has been blown out of proportion," he said.

Deb said, "The Biju Memorial Trust is organising the event in remembrance of Biju babu and his contribution to the development of the port town. It is well known that the port was set up at the initiative of Biju babu. There is nothing wrong in Dama babu being associated with the event."

However, BJD sources said the move of Rout to invite central leaders such as Nitish and Mulayam, who were known for their anti-BJP views, was a well-calculated move.

Rout wants to position himself in the party as a secular leader at a time when the BJD was finding it increasingly difficult to take an aggressive approach vis-a-vis the BJP at the Centre.

Leaders such as Nitish and Mulayam, who were close associates of Biju Patnaik as members of the erstwhile Janata family, would like Naveen to join their fold at the national level.

Now that Nitish and Lalu have come together, there is a talk of uniting the erstwhile members and constituents of the Janata party to take on the BJP at the Centre.

All these leaders and the Left Front look at Naveen as a potential ally, the sources said.

However, these sources are not sure whether Rout's move had the blessings of the Neveen or not.

"I don't think these leaders would accept the invitation from Rout, without consulting Naveen. All of them have cordial relations with the chief minister," said a senior BJD leader.

A close associate of Biju babu, octogenarian Bhabani Charan Patnaik, said: "There should be no politics on the issue. We should all remember the great son of the soil for his contribution to the state."

The party is officially organising public meetings on March 5 across the state and the main event will be held at the party headquarters.

The organisational elections of BJD have reached the final stages and the new president will be elected on February 28. Naveen is set to be re-elected the party president for the sixth term.