Several dissident ministers, led by Deputy Chief Minister Basanta Kumar Biswal, are presently camping in Delhi to press for removal of Chief Minister J B Patnaik who is facing trying time over the upheaval.

A 12-hour bandh called by all Opposition parties affected normal life in the state yesterday demanding ouster of Patnaik and ordering of a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the Anjana incident.

The chief minister has been summoned to Delhi by All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi over the development on January 16 next. Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Hemananda Biswal also left for Delhi this evening.

Party sources revealed that though the dissident ministers had decided to go to Delhi to campaign against the chief minister, the Anjana incident had further bolstered their cause.

Besides Biswal, the other party leaders demanding the chief minister's removal were Transport Minister K C Lenka, Higher Education Minister B P Mohanty, Minister for Mass and School Education Jayadev Jena, Minister for Health and Family Welfare Amarnath Pradhan, Minister for Sport Gajadhar Majhi, Deputy Speaker of Assembly Bibhuti Bhushan Singh Mardaraj and Deputy Chief Whip Santosh Singh Saluja.

Though simmering differences between the chief minister and his deputy Biswal -- once a close friend -- had sparked off a turmoil within the party, it was for the first time that the rebels had openly asked for his ouster.

In fact, the dissidents had preferred to keep mum till they met the AICC chief in Delhi. However, loyalists were quick to defend the chief minister, who lost his posts of PCC president and member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) after Sonia took over the Congress reigns.

Even as the Opposition outfits called a bandh yesterday after the Anjana episode unfolded, eight party leaders including seven ministers condemned the Opposition leaders for trying to politicise the issue.

What is unfortunate is that the Opposition outfits are more interested to take political advantage from the situation and less keen about the guilty being punished, they said in a joint statement here.

It was ridiculous to implicate the government in every incident, they said while questioning the motive of the agitation after the government had ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

The signatories to the statement included Ministers Jagannath Patnaik (Revenue), Shaikh Matlub Ali (Rural Development), Habibullah Khan (Panchayati Raj), Nabin Chandra Narayan Das (Minister of State, Panchayati Raj), Rabindra Sethi (Cooperation), Bijaylaxmi Sahoo (Women and Child Development), Suresh Routray (Excise) and former minister Gangadhar Mohapatra.

In a separate statement, PCC vice-president Ananta Prasad Sethi also ridiculed the Opposition decision to go for the bandh even after a judicial probe had been ordered into the Anjana case.

While all eyes were now on Delhi where the dissidents were camping, the proposed three-day visit of AICC general secretary Madhavrao Scindia to the state from tomorrow had been cancelled.

Loyalists, however, appeared relieved that several AICC leaders had stated that Patnaik would not be removed from the chief ministership at present.

But his summoning to Delhi on Saturday when the CWC is slated to meet has fuelled speculation both within and outside Congress circles.