BHUBANESWAR: Presence of excise minister Damodar Rout and his detractors, three BJD MLAs from Cuttack district, in the chief minister's office today sparked off speculation that the four leaders were summoned by the party chief Naveen Patnaik over the ongoing spat between them.
MLA and party's spokesperson Pratap Jena was the first to enter the chief minister office (CMO) followed by the other two MLAs Debasis Samantray and Prabhat Biswal. Rout was the last to enter the CMO.
While the MLAs left one after the other, Rout was the last to leave the chief minister's office. The spat between the BJD leaders had got murkier on Tuesday after Rout had called the Rajya Sabha MP Bisnu Das, Samantray and Jena 'ghosts'. He, however, later denied to have said so.
he three MLAs were tightlipped over what transpired in the CMO. They, however, declined to have met the chief minister. "We (Samantray and Biswal) had gone to the CMO to discuss our constituency problem with some officials and did not meet the chief minister," Samantray said. Jena also did not meet the chief minister.
The excise minister only met the chief minister. Rout said he had given a ‘message' to the chief minister without elaborating what on the issue further. He also did not reveal anything about what happened in the two-minute meeting with the chief minister.
Sources, however, maintained that the chief minister had taken the issue seriously and is likely to take action in the matter soon. BJD leaders have resorted to exchange of words publicly violating the chief minister's directive in this regard.
The chief minister had party leaders not to give any opinion on issues without clearance from the leadership. He had also asked ministers to concentrate on their work related to their departments.