Bhubaneswar, June 5: The BJD today received a shot in its arm with all the four legislators belonging to Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party deciding to join its fold.

The revolt by the BJD’s Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra saw chief minister Naveen Patnaik quickly agreeing to the four MLAs joining the BJD. The four have been lobbying hard for ministerial berths for quite some time, as the NCP has been BJD’s alliance partner in the Odisha government since 2009, and finally decided to join the BJD. With this, the BJD’s strength in the 147-member Odisha Assembly has gone up to 108.

The Assembly Speaker will formally announce the NCP legislators joining the BJD. As all the four legislators have decided to join the ruling party, their decision will not attract the provisions of the anti-defection laws. The law permits a merger between two parties provided two-thirds of the legislators in a House favour the move.

The four legislators are Amar Prasad Satpathy, Ramchandra Hansda, Nabin Nanda and Prasanta Nanda. All the four met BJD head and chief minister Naveen Patnaik and discussed the modalities of the merger.

The four legislators had supported Naveen in his decision to back former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma for President. The MLAs had gone to New Delhi to prevail upon their leader, Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, to endorse Sangma’s candidature.

After meeting Naveen for two hours, the MLAs called on Speaker of the Odisha Assembly Pradeep Amat and discussed various aspects of the merger. Senior BJD leaders were present during the discussion.

The NCP had opened its party unit here after the Odisha Gana Parishad, a regional outfit headed by Bijoy Mohapatra, merged with it in 2007. After the NCP made an electoral alliance with the BJD in 2009 elections, Mohapatra left the party and joined the BJP. In 2009, four of its members were elected to the Odisha Assembly.

Of the four MLAs, Satpathy and Prasanta Nanda were in the BJD and ministers in 2001-04. Both were dropped from the cabinet by Naveen.

The MLAs and the party have been at loggerheads for quite some time as the NCP’s state unit president Utkal Parida has always wanted to maintain a distance from the ruling party while the NCP legislators have been close to the BJD. With the legislators deciding to join the BJD, Parida said: “The NCP has a support base in the state. We have already apprised the leadership of the current political development and we will announce our next course of action later.”