Rebels outwit Patnaik in leadership row

In the war between BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and dissidents in his party, the rebels won the battle for leadership of the BJD parliamentary wing with LS Speaker Manohar Joshi continuing to recognise Prasanna Acharya as its leader.

Patnaik had tried to upstage the rebel camp by expelling three BJD MPs — Prabhat Samantaray, Kumudini Patnaik and Jagannath Mullick. He also installed Union Water Resources Minister Arjun Charan Sethi as the parliamentary party leader yesterday.

‘‘The Speaker has clarified that I will continue to be the recognised leader of the BJD parliamentary group,’’ Acharya said. He said he would not bar the three expelled MPs from entering the party office in Parliament and participating in its meetings.

Story continues below this ad

The 10-member BJD group has six rebels including the three expelled ones while four MPs are siding with the party chief.

The rebels had last month installed Acharya as the parliamentary party leader replacing Sethi.