BHUBANESWAR: As the BJD sinks deeper and deeper following the 2024 election debacle, gripped by widespread discontentment and increasing desertions, it suffered another setback with senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray resigning from his organisational post questioning the bureaucratic style of functioning and ideological drift in the party.
Samantaray, a long-time loyalist of former chief minister and party supremo Naveen Patnaik, tendered his resignation from the post of vice-president of the BJD senior citizen’s cell.
In a strongly worded letter to the BJD president, Samantaray said the designation like ‘in the rank of vice-president’ was demeaning and humiliating. He expressed displeasure over what he termed as the bureaucratic style of party reorganisation.
“I doubt that there is any place for loyalists of legendary Biju Babu or your loyalists, who stood like rock behind your long and illustrious political career,” he wrote to Naveen.
The senior leader alleged that BJD had deviated from the line of thought, ideology and action that once defined Biju Patnaik’s legacy. Pointing to the party’s Assembly poll defeat and subsequent setbacks, he said no serious introspection had been undertaken to address the reasons behind the loss and no remedial measures taken.
“Wins and losses are natural to elections. However, we lost despite having a popular chief minister. Every BJD cadre and leader, whether they speak out or not, know the cause behind our defeat in 2024. A design was being made to weaken the party from within,” he stated.
The resignation of Samantaray from the party post has triggered a fresh wave of criticism from other veterans, including former party MLA and senior leader Bhupinder Singh, who openly backed the former.
The real crisis began when Biju Patnaik’s image was sidelined from the party’s campaign materials. Biju Babu was missing even from the party posters during both the 2024 elections and the recent Nuapada bypoll, where the BJD slipped to the third position, he said.
Singh also questioned why senior leaders were not consulted during ticket selection for the Nuapada bypoll, which the BJP won by a margin of over 83,000 votes. “The young leaders are now worried about their future,” Singh told mediapersons.
