He said both the Prime Minister and Home Minister were worried over the situation at Kandhamal and the Centre was ready to rush more forces and choppers to bring the situation under control. Jaiswal, who was supposed to fly to Kandhamal in a helicopter, put off his visit after a request from the state Government not to undertake the tour.

Violence erupted in Kandhamal and spread to other districts following the killing of VHP leader Lakshmanananda Saraswati and four others on Saturday night. But the political temperature in the state did not shoot up as expected after senior BJP leaders and Sangh satraps went into a firefighting mode to calm their restive cadres. Though several BJP MLAs want to use the opportunity to withdraw from the Naveen Patnaik ministry, party president Suresh Pujari discounted such a possibility.

The party has asked its cadres to wait for a few days before any decision can be taken on the fate of two senior BJP ministers who are facing increasing hostility from the VHP for their “astonishing silence” over the killing of Lakshmanananda.

But under pressure from its cadre, the party has asked the Chief Minister to bring not just the killers of the seer to book but also hunt down the conspirators of the killing.

“For us, the conspirators of the killing are more important than the killers,” Pujari told The Indian Express.