
Bhubaneswar: Coming down heavily on the rebels in the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday suspended Lok Sabha MP Pyari Mohan Mahapatra, two ministers and two MLAs from the party. The ministers who have been suspended from the party are Anjali Behera and Sanjeev Sahoo. On Tuesday, more than 25 BJD MLAs and four ministers had met Patnaik's rival Mahapatra at his residence in Bhubaneswar...

06:48 PM, Jun 01, 2012

Though Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, the BJD MP and chief advisor to Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, was at the helm of affairs in the BJD ...

11:25 AM, Jun 01, 2012

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik will be meeting party colleagues on Friday. Patnaik came back to Bhubaneswar on Thursday night to a grand welcome by partymen who came in huge numbers to show solidarity after a rebellion by Naveen's confidant and BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on Tuesday. The revolt led by Pyari took place while Patnaik was on a week-long official tour to the UK...

07:51 AM, Jun 01, 2012

In Odisha, the BJD and the CPM have given a bandh call against the petrol price hike which has completely paralysed the state. ...

08:49 AM, May 31, 2012

Bhubaneswar: BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on Wednesday claimed that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was encircled by a group of conspirators comprising ministers, parliamentarians and MLAs who were trying to topple his government. "The conspirators comprising, ministers, MPs and MLAs want to topple Patnaik in order to fulfil their vested interests," he claimed but declined to name them. "The group of conspirators are misleading the chief minister. They feel...

10:41 PM, May 30, 2012

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader and MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on Wednesday alleged that a gangster has been hired by one of his party MLAs to kill him. "A Kolkata-based gangster Sunil Dutta has been engaged by an MLA of our party. I will not disclose the name of the MLA. I will tell everything to the chief minister," Mohapatra told reporters. Stating that he had already informed the matter to...

03:25 PM, May 30, 2012

Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra on Wednesday dismissed reports of any split within the party and said that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik continues to be the party leader. BJD MP Jay Panda also said that there was no rebellion within the BJD. "We have had a lot of discussions earlier. There is no dissidence in the party. Grievances have increased because the party organisation is...

10:20 AM, May 30, 2012

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is heading towards a split with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's confidante and BJD MP Pyari Mohan Mohapatra has reportedly turned rebellious against him. CNN-IBN has now learnt that Patnaik is cutting short his first visit to London in ten years and rushing home. Reacting to the crisis he said, "I understand that in my absence an MP of my party is stirring trouble...

08:27 AM, May 30, 2012

Bhubaneswar: In a possible revolt against the Naveen Patnaik government in Odisha, more than 25 Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLAs and four ministers the Chief Minister's rival Pyari Mohan Mahapatra at his residence in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday. Notably, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is currently in London and scheduled to return on June 1. According to BJD vice president Damodar Rout, some MLAs met Pyari Mohan Mahapatra and are planning to...

10:52 PM, May 29, 2012

Balasore (Odisha): For the third time in five days, India test-fired two indigenously developed surface-to-air anti-aircraft 'Akash' missiles from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur near Balasore in Odisha. The double test-fire came after trials of the missile, with a range of 25 km and capable of carrying a warhead of 60 kg to neutralise aerial targets, on May 24 and 26. "The flight trial of two Akash missiles were...

12:33 PM, May 28, 2012

New Delhi: A severe heat wave has claimed 10 more lives in Odisha taking the toll to 20 in five days. The maximum temperature touched 46 degrees in many parts of the state. Bolangir, Sonepur, Boudh and Anugul were among the worst affected districts. The state is battling frequent power cuts and water shortage as well. Meanwhile, North India also continued to bear the heat. Bikaner, Agra and Lucknow recorded...

08:18 AM, May 28, 2012

Balasore: Surface-to-air missile, Akash, was test fired from Chandipur in Odisha on Saturday. The test was carried out at 11:10 am. A similar test was carried on Thursday. India had on Thursday test-fired successfully its indigenously-developed surface-to-air Akash missile from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, about 15 km from Balasore. "The user-specific trial, which formed part of the country's routine air defence exercises, was successful," said a Defence Research...

11:55 AM, May 26, 2012

London: As human rights campaigners alleged that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had pulled out of a lecture scheduled at Brighton on Monday, his aides insisted that there were no plans for a lecture at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). V K Pandian, private secretary to the Chief Minister, said that the plan was to share experience and benefit from inputs from IDS experts on malnutrition and poverty reduction...

08:36 PM, May 25, 2012

Bhubaneswar: Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Friday called for a statewide shutdown May 31 to protest the hike in petrol prices by oil marketing companies. At an emergency meeting, the office bearers of the party here decided to organise demonstrations and protests across the state on their own, even though the Left parties and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also have called a nation-wide shutdown the same...

05:33 PM, May 25, 2012

Bhubaneswar: With Naveen Patnaik supporting NCP leader PA Sangma as a presidential candidate for being a tribal, Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday asked the Odisha Chief Minister to ensure justice to a large number of innocent tribals "unfairly" jailed in the state. "Clearly something must be done urgently to ensure justice to innocent and unfairly jailed adivasis or to those adivasis who are in jail on very flimsy ground,"...

01:17 AM, May 24, 2012