Rejecting allegations of senior party leaders and other critics about the existence of “dual power centres’ in the party, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo and chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, said he was the only such figure in the party.
“There is no second power-centre (in BJD). The decision that the party takes are made and taken by me,” he said.
Senior party leader and BJD vice president Damodar Rout, after his ouster from the state cabinet last month, had, in a reference to Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, party MP and Patnaik confidante, said there was a second power centre, that actually took all the decisions. Naveen Patnaik, he had said, was only the executor.
Another party leader and a former minister, Debasis Nayak, was suspended from the party last month for raising the same issue and questioning Patnaik’s style of functioning.
Mohapatra seconded the CM’s views. “Those who are propagating about it (second power centre) have their own interest behind it. Our party has only one power centre and that is the chief minister, who is also president of the party,” he said.
