TNI Bureau: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik played another master stroke to boost his party Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the state, as he persuaded four NCP MLAs to join his party.

The NCP Legislature Party, comprising of four MLAs, officially merged with the BJD Legislature Party. Assembly Speaker Pradip Amat has approved the merger and ruled that the NCP MLAs will now be considered as BJD MLAs.

The MLAs, who joined the BJD, included Amar Prasad Satapathy, Naveen Nanda, Prashant Nanda and Ramachandra Hansda. With this, the BJD’s strength has in 147-member Odisha Assembly has now gone up to 108.

After dismissing Ministers Sarada Nayak, Anjali Behera and Sanjeeb Sahoo from the Cabinet and suspending MLAs Prabhat Biswal and Bibhuti Balabantrai, Naveen’s move to include four NCP MLAs into the party fold, is seen as a big boost to his undisputed leadership in the party.