BHUBANESWAR: In a big jolt to the Congress, working president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Pradeep Majhi resigned from the party on Friday. He is expected to join the ruling BJD by the end of this month.
Majhi put to rest all speculations over resigning from the party in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in which he said that he wanted to serve people at whatever position he is, but this is no longer possible in Congress. “I have a great desire to serve people at whatever position I am which is now
lacking in the Congress party,” he said in the letter.
The former MP said that the organisation of the party, which was extremely well managed by Gandhi’s dynamic leadership, has now declined due to recalcitrant persons occupying important posts at different level. “Now the party has almost lost its credibility which may take a long time to revive,” he added.
Stating that he joined Congress with utmost enthusiasm with a view to serve the needy people, Majhi said accordingly the party also provided him ample opportunity and placed him at top positions without any demand from him. “I enjoyed the respective position and gained love and favour of the people,” he said
and added, “I shall, however, perform my duties as per your ideology and serve the people with utmost satisfaction.”
The former MP said in the letter that he is painfully quitting the party for which he may be excused. Majhi represented Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat from 2009 to 2014 and was a prominent tribal leader as well as a youth leader of Congress in Odisha. Though he lost the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary polls from
Nabarangpur to Balabhadra Majhi (BJD) and Ramesh Majhi (2019), he still has good support base in Nabarangpur and Malkangiri districts.
Majhi has given clear hints of his joining the ruling BJD by stating that the regional party has greater scope for serving the people. There is not much difference between the ideologies of Congress and BJD, he had said.
However, his rival in Koraput district politics and Congress whip in the assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati said that Majhi’s resignation will have no impact on the party.
Bahinipati, the Jeypore MLA, alleged that Majhi quit the party to avoid suspension. Stating that Majihi quit the party for personal reasons, he asked what prevented him from serving the people. Congress legislator Suresh Routray said that Majhi betrayed the party to serve his personal interests. Majhi was not available for his comments.