PARTY POOPERS: (from left) Samantray, Jagannath, Patsani, Acharya and Mahtab

Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was chairing a meeting in the state secretariat on September 17 when the phone rang. The caller told Naveen that six of the 10 Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MPs had rebelled and elected Prasanna Acharya as their leader besides seeking recognition as a separate group from the Lok Sabha Speaker. The chief minister maintained a grim silence.

Minutes later when reporters caught up with him, Naveen gamely struck a confident note: "Nothing is wrong. I am in command." But his words lacked conviction. With his rivals poised to attempt a similar split in the BJD's Orissa unit, the chief minister is under siege.

Naveen's rivals are exultant. "We will have Naveen replaced as Orissa chief minister soon," threatened Dilip Ray, Rajya Sabha member and former Union minister who was expelled from the BJD. For once, the threat does not ring hollow. The series of suspensions and expulsions from the party has resulted in a motley crowd of ex-BJD leaders baying for Naveen's blood. The rebel MPs-Acharya, Bhartruhari Mahtab, Prasanna Patsani, Prabhat Samantray, Kumdini Patnaik and Jagannath Mallick-are all Ray loyalists. The ostensible reason for the revolt was BJD Parliamentary Party leader Arjun Sethi's style of functioning. "We were not allowed to meet anyone in the Government or raise any issue in Parliament," says Samantray who, along with Mallick and Kumdini, was suspended in August for seeking a parliamentary party meeting. "When TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu visits Delhi, he holds discussion with his MPs. Naveen, on the other hand, rushes out half-way through a dinner meet with his MPs," points out another dissident.

UNDER SIEGE: Naveen now has only four MPs

Naveen is known to keep most legislators at an arms length but is seen to be close to a dubious few. His dependence on Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, a retired bureaucrat, makes matters worse. "Naveen is not the chief minister. He merely carries out Mohapatra's orders. We thought he would be like his father Biju Patnaik. But a lion's son turned out to be a mouse," says Mallick.

The dissidents now plan to split the 70-member BJD Legislature Party. But to form a government, they need 74 MLAs or the support of the majority of the BJD legislators in a 147-seat Assembly. Though a handful of the BJP's 35 MLAs are not averse to siding with the dissidents, the party leadership is disinclined to associate with Ray, whose public image, many believe, leaves a lot to be desired.

Naveen's options are limited. To broker truce with the rebels, he could concede their one-man one-post demand and appoint a new party chief. Or, he could browbeat the rebels by threatening to dissolve the House. But Naveen's trump card is that his personal reputation remains intact. He could whip up popular support by projecting himself as a martyr to his anti-corruption cause. But it may not be a convincing act.