Naveen Patnaik's party has supported the ruling BJP on many issues in parliament.
Even as a debate raged on in the parliament, the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal today indicated that it will support the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill despite other opposition parties dubbing it as discriminatory.
"We will support the Citizenship Amendment Bill, but we suggest the inclusion of Sri Lanka in the countries coming under its purview. There have been reports of minorities there being ill-treated in the past," news agency ANI quoted Biju Janata Dal leader Prasanna Acharya as saying.
Mr Acharya also said that the central government should allay misunderstandings that the bill was anti-Muslim in nature.
Another party leader told NDTV on the condition of anonymity that his party was very close to supporting the redrafted bill. "We are tilting in that direction. Our party high command will finalise its decision by this evening," he said.
However, the Biju Janata Dal's indications may not come as a big surprise to other opposition parties, given that it has often emerged as the BJP's most prominent ally outside of the National Democratic Alliance. It had earlier helped the BJP pass crucial bills related to triple talaq and Jammu and Kashmir through the Rajya Sabha.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill seeks to amend a six-decade-old law to make it easier for non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become Indian citizens.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier justified the bill, claiming that the Congress has no right to accuse of it being discriminatory when it had partitioned the country along religious lines in the first place. "The Citizenship Amendment Bill wouldn't have been needed if the Congress had not allowed partition on basis of religion (in 1947). It was the Congress that divided the country on religious lines, not us," he said in response to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's contention that the bill "endorses the idea of religious discrimination".
Mr Shah also claimed that objections registered by north-eastern leaders against the bill have been taken into account, and several states - including Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya - left out of its purview.
Hyderabad politician Asaduddin Owaisi tore a copy of the bill by the end of the debate.