"He was not ready to snap ties with BJP. He agreed to do so only after he was told that Congress would benefit if BJP candidates were given more tickets," Mohapatra, who has been suspended from the BJD, told a private TV channel.
Patnaik, however, changed his stand after being persuaded, claimed Mohapatra, who has turned hostile to the BJD leadership for allegedly engineering the May 29 failed coup bid.
"Ultimately, my strategy worked and BJD won with overwhelming majority," Mohapatra claimed.
The nine-year-old ties between ruling BJD and BJP ended over sharing of seats. The parties had allied to form a coalition government from 2000 to 2009 in the state.
While BJP demanded at least 50 of the 147 assembly seats and five of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state, BJD had offered it 25 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat. As there was no agreement, the alliance broke up.
BJP performed badly and won only six assembly seats and lost in all the Lok Sabha seats in the 2009 elections.
Besides securing an absolute majority in the assembly, BJD captured 14 Lok Sabha seats while CPI got one seat leaving six to Congress in 2009 polls.
Mohapatra, who has floated the Odisha Jan Morcha within the BJD, said he had advised Patnaik to forge seat adjustments with the CPI, CPI-M and Sharad Pawar led NCP instead of a tie-up with BJP.
Patnaik had then claimed to have broken ties with BJP for its 'communal' character.
