After more than a year of acrimonious exchanges between Biju Janata Dal leader and Orissa CM Naveen Patnaik and six party rebel MPs, the feud has reached its logical conclusion with a formal break. The rebels formed a new party called the Jana Shakti today and sought a separate seating arrangement in the House. The new party will announce its name and plans at a press meet tomorrow in New Delhi.With this development, the rebels, instead of putting the heat on Patnaik, may end up inviting trouble for themselves. Since three of them had already been expelled from the party last September, the fourth could attract disqualification proceedings under the Anti-Defection Act. The BJD had a total of 10 members before the three were expelled.The four members — Prasanna Patsani, Prabhat Samantray, Kumudini Patnaik and Jagannath Mallick — met Speaker Manohar Joshi this morning and submitted a letter to him, requesting he allocate separate seats to them. Patsani, who was still in BJD, said later they were forced to take this step due to ‘‘dictatorial’’ attitude of Patnaik’s , who ignored their requests to revoke the ‘‘suspension’’ of Samantray, Kumudini and Mallick.Reacting to the development, BJD secretary-general Damodar Rout said three of the MPs — Samantray, Mallick and Patnaik — are not primary members of the party anymore and so their decision will have no effect on the organisation.On the issue of Patsani joining hands with the rebels, Rout said the party has sought a report from parliamentary party leader Arjun Charan Sethi. With this, the BJD parliamentary party is now divided into three groups. The four rebel MPs, who met the Speaker today, constitute the new group.
