Bhubaneswar, June 1: Heads rolled as chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who survived a coup attempt, today struck back dismissing two ministers and suspending three, including Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, from the BJD.

Making the announcement at the state secretariat, the chief minister said that while he had recommended to the governor the dismissal of women and child development minister Anjali Behera and minister of state for commerce and transport Sanjeeb Sahu, he, as the president of BJD, had decided to suspend from the party Mohapatra and MLAs Pravat Biswal and Bibhuti Balbantray.

The announcement came at the end of hectic parleys at the chief minister’s Naveen Nivas residence, where almost all the party MLAs and MPs had turned up to meet him. The chief minister returned here yesterday, cutting short his visit to the United Kingdom after the news of 33 MLAs gathering at the Saheed Nagar residence of Mohapatra on Tuesday in a bid to dislodge him reached London.

Cool as ever, Naveen took care to preface his announcement with a reference to his foreign trip and the plot that was hatched against him during his absence in the state capital. “As you know, I was away in London and certain things happened during my absence. I have taken this decision after consulting party leaders,” he said before reeling out the names of dismissed ministers and the leaders suspended from the party. The name of Mohapatra, the leader of the failed coup and his one time Chanakya, came last as if for the sake of effect.

Mohapatra, who now finds himself hung with his own petard, said he expected as much from the chief minister who was being guided by a coterie.

“I have become the victim of the machinations of this coterie. I was expecting this. But people of the state will give a fitting reply to this,” said the 72-year-old leader who spent the day all by himself at his Saheed Nagar residence.

There was hectic activity at Naveen Nivas since this morning as almost all the party MPs and MLAs, with the exception of three or four including the two suspended MLAs, had turned up following summons from the chief minister who met them in small groups.

The sordid details of the failed coup became known as five of the 33 MLAs, who on Tuesday were present at the residence of Mohapatra, spoke for the first time about how they were invited by the Rajya Sabha member and what happened at the closed-door meeting.

The five MLAs — Debendra Kanhar, Bhagban Kanhar, Subarna Nayak, Sanjeeb Pradhan and Susanta Singh—claimed that at the residence of the Rajya Sabha member they were made to sign a paper which said that Mohapatra would be the new BJD legislature party leader.

Singh, the MLA from Bhatlee, said: “I got a call from Mohapatra’s residence asking me to rush there in the evening. On reaching there, I was asked to sign a paper which said that Mohapatra would be the new BJD legislature party leader.”

Keonjhar MLA Subrana Nayak also admitted before the chief minister that he was asked to put his signature on the paper.

“Then I was asked to leave for a posh hotel in the city. But I suspected foul play and refused to go,” the legislator said.

Nayak also told the chief minister that some MLAs were also huddled up that day at a posh hotel in the city as part of the conspiracy to unseat him. The MLA claimed that as a prelude to the failed coup, a Rs 200-crore deal was struck with the help of some mine owners at a hotel in the steel city of Rourkela a few days before the Bhubaneswar meeting.

Sources said former agriculture minister Damodar Rout, an arch rival of Mohapatra, today handed over to the chief minister a letter which is said to have details of the deal made in Rourkela.

Sources said the game plan of the conspirators was to collect the signatures of at least 53 of the 104 BJD MLAs in favour of Mohapatra so that he could supplant Naveen as the legislature party leader. The coup leaders had banked on the support of 27 members of the Congress to prove their majority in the Assembly in the event of a floor test.

However, the whole plan went haywire as neither could they manage the required numbers not could they keep the coup a secret.

The lid on the attempted coup was blown by Sorada MLA Purna Chandra Swain, who, after his return from Mohapatra’s residence on Tuesday evening, immediately alerted Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahy.

The Gopalpur MLA immediately called up the chief minister in London.

The rest, as they say, is history.