A prominent party MP, Bhartruhari Mahtab has openly questioned the manner in which the four leaders were admitted into the party "without adhering to the principles laid down". Former ministers and close associates of late Biju Patnaik, Damodar Rout, Sarat Kar, Kalandi Charan Behera and Saharai Eram quit the Janata Dal to join the BJD yesterday expressing full confidence in the leadership of Union Steel and Mines Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Patnaik, who is also the BJD president, introduced the four leaders at a news conference here describing them as "close associates of my father" who would strengthen the party's fight against the "corrupt Congress government". Reacting angrily to the development, Mahtab, who is also the son of former chiefminister, late Harekrushna Mehtab, said that Patnaik had taken an "unilateral decision" to induct the four leaders without consulting other leaders.

The party had decided that the president and the chairman of the Political Affairs Committee, would jointly take decisions an admitting new members to the party fold which would have to be ratified by the PAC later.