Pany immediately sat down, folded his hands together and nodded while looking down.

Pany's 'nikammi' word elicited a wry comment from Chidambaram.

'When friends fall out, skeletons come tumbling out,' he said.

The BJP had been a junior partner for 10 years in Orissa's ruling coalition led by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). It parted ways after the BJD walked out of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) just before the April-May general elections.

Ahluwalia, it will be remembered, formed part of the Congress' 'shouting brigade' during the time Rajiv Gandhi was prime minister in the mid-1980. He later fell out with the party and joined the BJP.