Biju Janata Dal MP Bhartruhari Mahtab on Wednesday invoked “national interest” and told the Lok Sabha to extend “full support” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diplomatic efforts, the intervention possibly aimed at countering Congress House leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Chowdhury had sought to criticise the government over Chinese incursion in the Ladakh region earlier this month.

Mahtab’s comment also provided a peek into the changed political dynamics since the BJP’s 300-seat-plus performance in the April-May parliamentary elections.

Chowdhury had brought up the alleged incursion during zero hour, claiming that Chinese troops had on July 6 entered 6km inside Indian territory in Ladakh’s Demchok area and planted their flag.

The veteran from Bengal, recently appointed leader of the Congress in the House, called it a matter of “grave concern” in what appeared to be a bid to corner the BJP, which had centred its election campaign on nationalism.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh assured the House all was well on the Line of Actual Control, the demarcation line that separates Indian-controlled territory from Chinese-controlled territory.

“India and China are respecting bilateral pacts to maintain peace and tranquillity on the border,” Rajnath said, referring to Modi’s summit meeting with President Xi Jinping in Wuhan last year.

Mahtab then rose to intervene, reading from a prepared text, clearly prepared to counter the Congress and back the government.

He mentioned a scheduled meeting between Modi and Xi in Varanasi on October 12 and referred to Modi’s bilateral interaction with US President Donald Trump at the recent G20 summit in Osaka to suggest the Prime Minister was working towards the best interests of the country.

“I urge upon the House to extend full support to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi to further our national interest,” Mahtab said while stressing the need for political unanimity, drawing a big round of applause from the treasury benches.

It was an extraordinary intervention from Mahtab. While the BJD has always trod the middle path vis-à-vis the BJP and the Congress, Mahtab, on Wednesday, virtually snubbed the Congress while backing Modi.

Mahtab, a veteran Lok Sabha member, was the BJD’s House leader during the first Modi government and his name had been circulated as one the ruling BJP preferred for the deputy Speaker’s post. This time BJD boss and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik has selected Puri MP Pinaki Mishra to be the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha.

Sources in the BJP said the government was ready to have Mahtab as deputy Speaker but was not getting the green signal from Naveen. “We are, however, not in a hurry and waiting for things to turn in our favour,” a BJP leader said.

The government has deferred the election for deputy Speaker for now.

The BJP won eight Lok Sabha seats from Odisha in the recent elections and nurses ambitions of capturing power in the state, but it is not in a hurry, aware that Naveen is still a very popular leader.

The party, however, hopes that by the next Assembly elections in 2024, the BJD would split and many leaders would join the BJP.