Bhubaneswar: An all-party conference on Sunday urged chief minister Naveen Patnaik to carry all political parties with him to defend Odisha's interest in the Mahanadi row.

The BJP boycotted the conference.

Last year in August, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra had called an all-party meeting on the issue, which the BJD had boycotted. Mish-ra had suggested the setting up of a tribunal to resolve the dispute. But, the move fizzled out with Naveen taking an independent initiative and consulting some of the political parties separately on the issue.

Sunday's conference resolved to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ask the Chhattisgarh government to stop construction of all barrages on Mahanadi.

BJD general secretary Debi Prasad Mishra said: "The BJP is trying to avoid as the Centre has failed to address the issue."

BJP state vice-president Samir Mohanty said: "We had attended the all-party meet called by the leader of Opposition last year but it was the BJD that had boycotted it."