BJD MLAs and state women and child welfare minister Anjali Behera (top) come out of Pyari Mohan Mohapatra’s residence at Saheed Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 29: A group of ruling BJD legislators today met at the residence of Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra causing ripples in the state’s political circles.

The closed-door meeting, where around four ministers and 25 MLAs were present, has set tongues wagging as Mohapatra’s relations with chief minister Naveen Patnaik, currently on a trip to the United Kingdom, have become tense in the last few months.

What added grist to the rumour mills were reports that Mohapatra also held discussions with Congress dissidents, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist party leaders. “This is a serious issue,” quipped a senior BJD leader.

However, the MLAs, who attended the meeting where Mohapatra played the host, said nothing except the upcoming May 31 nationwide strike to protest against the steep hike in petrol prices was discussed.

“In the absence of the chief minister, the party was chalking out its strategy to make the bandh a success,” said a legislator, who attended the meet, on conditions of anonymity.

Intelligence sources said that the meet at Mohapatra’s residence was preceded by two similar closed-door events organised by his loyalists at different venues in the state capital during the day.

While one of these meetings was held at a farm house, the venue of the other was a prominent hotel of the capital.

Sources said four ministers — Sarada Nayak, Anjali Behera, Badri Narayan Patra and Sanjeeb Sahu — were present at Mohapatra’s residence, apart from deputy speaker Sanand Marandi and 24 other MLAs.

The legislators included Adikanda Sethi, Khageswar Behera, Rajendra Sahu, Debendra Kanhar Bibhuti Balabantray, Sushanta Singh, Pravat Biswal, Kamalakanta Nayak, Jiban Pradeep Das and Sarojini Hembram. Udala MLA Srinath Soren said: “We discussed the petrol hike and the protest planned against it.”

Today’s meeting assumes significance given Mohapatra’s rather tense relations with the chief minister these days. The RS member, once considered the second most important leader in the BJD, was conspicuous by his absence at the meet held at the party office on April 17 to mark the death anniversary of Biju Patnaik. Though Naveen was not present, the meeting was conducted by other leaders from the party.

Senior leaders such as former agriculture minister Damodar Rout had taken potshots at Mohapatra for trying to emerge as a parallel power centre. Even Cuttack-Choudwar MLA Debasis Samantaray, once a Mohapatra-acolyte, had criticised him. Last week, the party leadership did not invite Mohapatra to a meeting where the issue of BJD’s support to the bandh called given by the NDA on May 31 to protest petrol price hike was discussed.

Almost admitting their differences, Mohapatra had recently said that his decade old relations with Naveen had cooled off. “Romance loses its fire in the old age,” he had said hinting at the freeze in their relations.