The controversy over the disqualification petition against the four NCP MLAs who joined the BJD last year continued with the legislators threatening that they will file privilege notice against NCP State president Utkal Keshari Parida if he does not desist from making statement against Speaker Pradip Amat, who is a constitutional authority.
Stating that their joining the BJD last year was not a case of defection but was a merger, former minister Prashant Nanda said that the merit of the case has not been heard in any court so far, neither by the Speaker, nor the Supreme Court.
 Nanda said for the last one year, the issue in different courts was on the procedure, whether the petition filed by Parida was maintainable.
Describing their joining the BJD as constitutional and legal, the former minister said the Speaker had announced this in the Assembly also.
A resolution was adopted at a meeting of the office-bearers, district presidents and senior leaders of the NCP on May 28, 2012 to merge the State unit of the NCP with the BJD.
The meeting was presided over by Kulamani Deo, who was the senior vice-president of the NCP then, Nanda said and added that Parida, the State president, had walked out of the meeting with some of his supporters.
The State party had asked the NCP legislature party to take steps as per the resolution adopted, Nanda said and added that as per the decision, the NCP legislature party had also adopted a resolution to merge with the BJD.
Nanda said differences of opinion with the central party had cropped up from the day the legislators were asked to vote for Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA presidential candidate even though the State unit had announced support for P A Sangma.
Other three legislators, Amar Prasad Satpathy, Nabin Nanda and Ramchandra Handsa, party leader Kulamani Deo and Siddhartha Das were present.