Bhubaneswar: Amidst intense speculation over the likely fallout of the September 17 night's coup in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)'s Parliamentary party, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on September 18 asserted that the development posed no threat to his 30-month-old coalition ministry.

"This (development) is not going to have any great impact (on the party and government). As long as the people are with me I have no reason to feel threatened," Patnaik told reporters at Naveen Nivas, his residence.

Patnaik, who is president of the BJD, however, termed the decision of three rebel BJD members of Lok Sabha joining hands with three other suspended MPs to remove the leader of the Parliamentary party Arjun Charan Sethi as unfortunate.

The BJD chief, however, asserted that Sethi very much continued to be the leader of the BJD Parliamentary party.

It was most unfortunate that the MPs resorted to this action at a time when the state was reeling under a severe drought, Patnaik said.

It was a critical moment for the state as the ruling BJD was opposing Central government's move to privatise NALCO and had initiated certain steps in this regard. The party MPs should not have acted like this without communicating with him, he said.

"I will wait for their communication and then talk to senior party leaders before initiating any further step," the Chief Minister said.

He said as per media reports the MPs were unhappy for certain reasons, but they should have communicated with him before taking such a step.

Asked if any compromise formula was being worked out to win back the rebel MPs, Patnaik said, "Let us see what happens."



PTI