Bhubaneswar. June 9: Dhenkanal BJD MP Tathagata Satpathy today expressed regret for his diatribe against his party colleagues, including the party's vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had taken exception to Satpathy's remarks and had called for an explanation after Mishra had reportedly complained about Satpathy.

The four-time MP and son of former chief minister Nandini Satpathy, had described the BJP and the Congress as parties of thieves at a public meeting in his parliamentary constituency on Wednesday.

He had remarked: "In our party, there were four to five thieves and Naveen babu has dropped them from the ministry. One of them was Debi Mishra and I just want to tell the names of others. But the question is how many people Naveen Patnaik will drop."

Satpathy today tweeted: "Regret shooting my mouth and hurting sentiments. Will try to improve my characteristic flaw."

Satpathy's remarks had led to a furore in party circles as Naveen had dropped 10 ministers in the rejig on May 15 and had drafted most of them in the party work.

Trying to assuage the hurt feelings of the axed ministers, Naveen had said: "I have given a great deal of important political work to certain leaders of our party. Nobody should take it otherwise. What has been said is not good."

Several senior leaders in the BJD had come out openly against Satpathy, known for his unguarded remarks.

Earlier, he was embroiled in a controversy calling some of his party colleagues as "rats" in a godown who are making their best to damage the storeroom.

Naveen has recently dropped industries and school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra, information technology minister Pranab Prakash Das, technical education minister Sanjay Das Burma, law and panchayati raj minister Arun Sahu, finance minister Pradeep Amat, higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi, sports minister Sudam Marandi, minorities and backward class welfare minister Lal Bihari Himirika, housing and urban development minister Pushpendra Singh Deo and MSME minister Jogendra Behera.

Though Naveen maintains that some ministers were dropped because their services were required for party work, many in the party believe that his cabinet exercise was due to the party's poor performance in the recently held panchayat elections.

Many of the dropped ministers had not performed well in campaigning for the panchayat polls.