Bhubaneswar: A day after DMK announced pulling out its minister from the UPA cabinet, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Sunday hinted that it could examine any proposal for supporting the Congress-led coalition if approached.
"No one has approached us so far. If any proposal (for support) comes, we will discuss amongs ourselves and consider," senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Pyari Mohan Mohapatra said.
The matter would be examined by the party president and others, Mohapatra, regarded as the chief strategist of the ruling BJD in Orissa headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, told a local TV channel.
"Then we will see what can be done...In the interest of the country," the bureaucrat-turned politician said.
BJD, a regional political party named after Orissa stalwart Biju Patnaik, has 14 members in the Lok Sabha.
Of the 21 Lok Sabha seats from Orissa, six are held by Congress and one by CPI.
BJD, which has been adopting an anti-Congress stance since its inception, had also snapped ties with BJP on the eve of the last general elections in 2009 after sharing power with the saffron party in the state for nine years.
The DMK last evening decided to pull out of the Congress-led Government at the Centre after talks between the two parties on seat-sharing for the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections failed. The DKM, however, made it clear that while pulling out its six ministers from the Union Cabinet, the party would give issue-based support to the Manmohan Singh government in times of trouble.
With 18 MPs, the DMK is the second largest ally of Congress in the UPA after Trinamool Congress which has 19 MPs.
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