Ending months of a tense standoff, Kendrapara MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda tendered his resignation from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) citing “absolute depths of inhumanity” within the party and its supremo Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Ending months of a tense standoff, Kendrapara MP Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda tendered his resignation from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) citing “absolute depths of inhumanity” within the party and its supremo Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
In a three-page letter to Patnaik, Panda said the CM’s absence at the last rites of his father, Bansidhar Panda, was “the last straw” among “many humiliations over the past four years”. Panda’s father was a well-known industrialist with close ties to Naveen’s father, former chief minister Biju Patnaik.
Panda also claimed that several BJD leaders conveyed to him privately that they were prevented from paying their respects to Bansidhar Panda, 87, who passed away on May 22 in Bhubaneswar. Panda’s letter reminded Naveen Patnaik that Panda was one of the pallbearers during Biju Patnaik’s funeral.
Panda’s letter has also conveyed he will be separately writing to the Lok Sabha Speaker regarding his resignation, after completion of his religious obligations attached to the demise of his father.
Panada was earlier suspended from the party’s primary membership on charges of “anti-party activities.” Panda hit back at the BJD vehemently denying the allegation as “false and baseless.” “I’m shocked at this news. Very very sad @Naveen_Odisha didn’t see thru the conspiracy agnst me led by an IAS ofcr now controlling the party,” he had written on Twitter.
Panda was also dropped as the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, months after he called for introspection in the BJP following its poor performance in panchayat polls. However, this was not the first time that he was critical about the party’s politics. Often alleging that the party had been taken over by opportunists, Panda, in an article in Odia daily Samaj last year, wrote that the BJD regime had started looking like the “discredited” Congress regime of the 1980s and late 1990s. He had also alleged that founding members of the BJD had lost their access to the CM.
In a three-page letter to Patnaik, Panda said the CM’s absence at the last rites of his father, Bansidhar Panda, was “the last straw” among “many humiliations over the past four years”. Panda’s father was a well-known industrialist with close ties to Naveen’s father, former chief minister Biju Patnaik.
Panda also claimed that several BJD leaders conveyed to him privately that they were prevented from paying their respects to Bansidhar Panda, 87, who passed away on May 22 in Bhubaneswar. Panda’s letter reminded Naveen Patnaik that Panda was one of the pallbearers during Biju Patnaik’s funeral.
Panda’s letter has also conveyed he will be separately writing to the Lok Sabha Speaker regarding his resignation, after completion of his religious obligations attached to the demise of his father.
Panada was earlier suspended from the party’s primary membership on charges of “anti-party activities.” Panda hit back at the BJD vehemently denying the allegation as “false and baseless.” “I’m shocked at this news. Very very sad @Naveen_Odisha didn’t see thru the conspiracy agnst me led by an IAS ofcr now controlling the party,” he had written on Twitter.
Panda was also dropped as the party’s parliamentary spokesperson, months after he called for introspection in the BJP following its poor performance in panchayat polls. However, this was not the first time that he was critical about the party’s politics. Often alleging that the party had been taken over by opportunists, Panda, in an article in Odia daily Samaj last year, wrote that the BJD regime had started looking like the “discredited” Congress regime of the 1980s and late 1990s. He had also alleged that founding members of the BJD had lost their access to the CM.