Bhubaneswar, May 30: Rebel BJD leader Pyari Mohan Mohapatra had reportedly secured an assurance from the Congress party in his move to topple chief minister Naveen Patnaik and provide an alternative government in the state.

In his efforts to reach the magic number of 74 in the 147-member State Assembly, Mohapatra had contacted leaders of the Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and CPI. Congress, the principal Opposition party, has 26 legislators and Sharad Pawar’s NCP which had fought the last Assembly elections as a ruling party’s ally, has four members. CPI, yet another poll partner of the BJD, has one representative.

Sources in the Congress admitted that Mohapatra was in touch with them and they had agreed to extend support if he managed to get the right numbers to split BJD. Had he met the governor and staked his claim to form government, “we would have thrown our weight behind him”, he said.

A senior Congress leader from the coastal belt, who enjoys considerable clout among a section of party legislators, said Mohapatra had approached him and sought the party’s support. “I had discussed the matter with senior party leaders like Jagdish Tytler, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Digvijay Singh. They had agreed to extend outside support to a government led by the BJD rebels,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed that 23 of the total 26 party legislators and independent MLA from Talcher, whom he had consulted, were in favour of extending external support to Mohapatra. “They were of the opinion that we should take advantage of the BJD split. But there was no question of a group breaking away from the party and joining the new configuration,” he said.

The Congress, whose electoral base has been shrinking with successive poll defeats, had seen the golden opportunity in Mohapatra turning a rebel. Considering that Mohapatra was the master-strategist of the ruling BJD, the Congress had reasons to be happy at the developments within the BJD.

Congress legislature party leader Bhupinder Singh, however, declined to comment on the issue. “It’s too early to say anything. It’s up to the party high command to take a call,” he said.

On the other hand, rebel BJD leader Mohapatra denied having approached the Congress. “I have been fighting against Congress since my student days. Now I have been in non-Congress politics since last 12 years. Why should I join hands with it,” he asked.

Though Mohapatra described his meeting with NCP legislature party leader Amar Prasad Satpathy on May 28 evening as a “courtesy one” and claimed that the two had discussed about former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma’s candidature for the Presidentship.

It’s common knowledge that the four NCP legislators are not very happy with the ruling party as all of them were interested in having a say in the governance. Even some of them had been lobbying for ministerial berths.

Satpathy, when contacted, said: “We have not extended our support to Mohapatra, because it is purely an intra-party affair of BJD. We do not wish to meddle in BJD affairs.”