Bhubaneswar, Mar 30(UNI) In a major setback to the ruling Biju Janata dal(BJD) in Odisha, three party leaders including a sitting MP on Saturday resigned from the primary membership of the party.
Anubhav Mohanty, the party’s sitting MP from Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat has sent his resignation letter to Party President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik requesting him to accept his resignation immediately.
Mohanty is the second sitting BJD MP to quit the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier veteran BJD leader and six-time MP from Cuttack Lok Sabha seat Bhartruhari Mahtab had resigned from the party criticizing the functioning of the party affairs.
Mahtab had already joined the BJP and was likely to be fielded from the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat by the BJP as the BJD had already nominated Santrupt Mishra, a debutant in politics who recently joined BJD as party candidate for the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat.
Besides Mohanty, two former MLAs of the BJD Priyadarshi Mishra and Actor turned politician Akash das Nayak also resigned from the party on Saturday.
Priyadarshi Mishra who was elected to the state Assembly from Bhubaneswar North assembly seat in 2014 Assembly elections, was denied party ticket in the 2019 Assembly elections. He was also an aspirant for the party ticket in the ensuing Assembly elections.
Immediately after resigning from the BJD, Priyadarshi Mishra joined the BJP at the party’s office here in the presence of party President Manmohan Samal and BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi and party’s Odisha in-charge Vijayapal Singh Tomar.
Similarly, BJD’s former MLA Akashdas Nayak who was elected to the state Assembly from the Korei constituency in the 2014 assembly elections, but was denied a party ticket in the 2019 Assembly elections, quit the party for what he said was in the interest of the people of his constituency.
Political pundits apprehended that more BJD sitting MLAs and former MLAs are also likely to quit the party in the coming days as the party is yet to announce the names of candidates for six Lok Sabha seats and 75 Assembly seats.
Already two sitting MPs, as many former MPs, and about a dozen, both sitting and former MLAs of the BJD had resigned from the party ahead of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the state.
Most of the BJD leaders who have quit the party have similar allegations that they are being ignored in the party.
Veteran Congress leader and former MLA Chiranjib Biswal quit Congress on Saturday ahead of the 2024 elections. In a letter to Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Biswal said he resigned from the primary membership of the Congress. He said he has not decided his future course of action.
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