KalingaTimes Correspondent
Bhubaneswar, Aug 27: As expected top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha on Wednesday decided that their party would remain in power as part of the two-party coalition government.

The decision that was taken late in the evening put an end to the speculation that the party may pull out of the government in the wake of the killing of VHP leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati.

Senior leaders of the party held a meeting to take a formal decision on the party's stand after one of their legislators Brundaban Majhi submitted a letter to party's state unit chief Suresh Pujari stating that he would no longer provide active support to the government.

Majhi had said in the letter addressed to the Assembly Speaker that he wanted to withdraw his active support to the BJD-BJP government as it had not been able to provide adequate security to Lakshmanananda Saraswati.

According to sources, the leaders and Ministers who attended the crucial meeting, however, decided that while continuing in the government the party would demand for immediate arrest of those who killed the VHP leader.

A group of leaders of the party would meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik soon to raise various demands pertaining to the killing of Lakshmanananda, conversion and cow slaughter, sources said.

A leader belonging to a particular faction of the BJP said that Majhi had been instigated to write the letter by a group of leaders in the party who were opposed to Chief Minister.