India, April 5 -- Odisha politics heated up dramatically as senior Congress leader and Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati dropped a political bombshell against the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), alleging deep internal cracks within the party and accusing it of having a long-standing covert alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2000.

In a scathing statement to the media, Bahinipati claimed that the BJD is a divided house, where two distinct groups have emerged - one loyal to Biju Patnaik's ideology and the other reportedly under the control of bureaucrat-turned-political strategist V. Karthikeyan Pandian.

"The party no longer represents the original Biju legacy. It's now driven by one man's agenda - Pandian," Bahinipati al...