BHUBANESWAR: In a jolt to the BJD ahead of elections, sitting MLA from Anandapur Bhagirathi Sethy and two former legislators resigned from the party expressing their reservation over candidate selection.
Bhagirathi sent his resignation from the primary membership of the party to president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday. Though he has not stated the reasons behind his resignation, sources maintained that he quit from the BJD after he was denied renomination from the Anandapur seat. BJD had replaced Bhagirathi by Abhimanyu Sethi for the seat for the ensuing election. Bhagirathi was elected from the Anandapur constituency on BJD tickets in 2009 and 2019 elections.
In a setback for the BJD, former MLA from Kakatpur Surendra Sethi resigned from the party on Tuesday after he was denied of nomination from the seat. The BJD has renominated Tusharkanti Behera for the seat in the ensuing elections. Sethi had won from Kakatpur on BJD ticket in 2014 elections. But the ruling party dropped him in 2019 and allotted the ticket to Behera in 2019.
Earlier in the day, former MLA from Karanjia Bijay Kumar Naik also resigned from the party saying he was neglected for a long time. Naik was elected from Karanjia in Mayurbhanj district in 2009 and 2014 elections. Naik, who was aspiring for a ticket from the Karanjia segment alleged that he was neglected in the ruling BJD though he worked hard to strengthen the party organisation in Mayurbhanj district.