Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday called upon his party supporters to reach out to the people and sensitise them on how the BJP-ruled governments at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh were working against the interest of the state on the Mahanadi issue.

The Congress has also extended its support to Odisha's cause on the Mahanadi issue.

"This is a clear-cut stand taken by the AICC and it has been communicated to the PCC," said AICC in-charge of Odisha Jitendra Singh here on Sunday.

Addressing a convention at party headquarters here on the Mahanadi issue, the chief minister and BJD president said: "Now the workers of our party have to go to the people and explain them as to how the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre are obstructing the Mahanadi water inflow into the state and also opposing setting up of a tribunal to resolve the issue."

Stating that his government has always been fighting for the protection of the state's interest, Patnaik said he had urged the Centre to set up a tribunal to adjudicate the river water-sharing dispute between the states, but the Centre dilly-dallied.

Odisha has been opposing Chhattisgarh's plans to build 13 barrages and seven pick-up weirs (small dams) across the river to extract more water.

BJD leader Sanjay Das Burma said: "The Chhattisgarh government has started illegal construction of dams over Mahanadi that will slowly dry up the river."

Rajya Sabha member Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who recently joined the party, offered his post to Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan if he agreed to take up the issue in Parliament and fight for the state.

"Dharmendra Pradhan must prove that the state is more important to him rather than the party. I am ready to leave my post for him so that he may fight in Parliament in the interest of the state," he said.

Party MP Tathagata Satpathy said more than 1,000 party workers would court arrest in Chhattisgarh over the river issue.

Responding to the charges, BJP leader Sameer Mohanty said: "It is unfortunate that the chief minister is holding the BJP responsible for the Mahanadi water problem. The people of Odisha have already understood the real truth and that's the reason the BJD is distressed."