BHUBANESWAR: There was indeed a plot on Tuesday to dethrone Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during his tour to the UK. But, the script went wrong during execution, and BJD dissident and protagonist Pyarimohan Mohapatra was forced to abort the coup.The sequence of events, narrated by the ‘rebel’ MLAs to Naveen on that fateful night, has confirmed this. Naveen on Friday grilled 30 of the 33 MLAs, who met Rajya Sabha member Pyari among others, at the Naveen Nivas. Only dismissed minister Anjali Behera, party MLAs Prabhat Biswal and Bibhuti Balabantray did not go to the Naveen Nivas.The Chief Minister first met five MLAs __ Debendra Kanhar, Sanjib Pradhan, Bhagaban Kanhar, Subarna Nayak and Purna Swain __ and asked them about what transpired at Pyari’s residence on that night. The MLAs, who met Naveen in a group, said they were asked to sign on a document having a resolution that Pyari has been elected the legislature party leader.Sources said the resolution was on the first page while signatures were taken on the second. Out of the five MLAs, Swain did not sign the paper. The four MLAs reportedly told Naveen that the first page was shown to them after they signed on the second page. The first ten numbers on the signature sheet were kept blank. Now the leadership is in search of the first 10 MLAs who would have signed there.The plan was that after signing on the paper, the MLAs would have gone to a posh hotel in the night for a meeting. Rooms were also booked for them there. Some of the MLAs also stayed the night at the hotel and left for Naveen Nivas the next day when the equation started to tilt.According to sources, at first two partymen __ a former minister and a minister of state __ reached Pyari’s house that evening. But both of them guessed that things were not proceeding on the right track and distanced themselves. Not all the 33 MLAs, including the ministers, signed on the dotted line. Some became suspicious and did not sign.The MLAs were asked to send the vehicles to their quarters so that they could be taken to the hotel in other vehicles. But some of them like Debendra, Sanjib, Bhagaban, Subarna and Khageswar Behera rushed back to their quarters. They were contacted by Naveen loyalists and taken to Naveen Nivas in the night. Another MLA Sushant Singh was also brought to Naveen Nivas during the night by a senior minister. From this point onwards, other dissidents also started to desert Pyari barring some ‘faithfuls’.The sequence of events, narrated by the MLAS, reportedly raised Naveen’s hackles.
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