BHUBANESWAR: In a big jolt to the BJD, senior leader and a long-time loyalist of party president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik, Debashish Samantaray resigned from the primary membership of the party as well as from his Rajya Sabha seat.
Samantaray, who was unhappy with the party leadership for the last several months, tendered his resignation in a letter to the BJD president. He also met Vice President and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha CP Radhakrishnan at New Delhi on Monday morning and tendered his resignation from the membership of the Rajya Sabha. With this, the number of BJD MPs in the Rajya Sabha has come down to 5.
In his resignation letter, Samantaray wrote: “I shall always be indebted to you for nominating me to Rajya Sabha. I take this opportunity to express my sincere and deepest gratitude to you for giving me an opportunity to serve the people of undivided Cuttack district and to raise issues of Odisha at large, at the national level. I have always dedicated myself to the interest of the party and have, over the years, worked for the party with utmost conviction and commitment. However, I feel that, of late, I have been systematically belittled in the party and that the party does not require my services. Therefore, I have taken this hard decision in the public interest and request you to accept my resignation.”
Sources said that Samantaray is likely to join the BJP at New Delhi in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and other senior leaders of the party, including the state president Manmohan Samal. The Chief Minister has already left for New Delhi, while Samal is already camping there.
Replying to questions, Samantaray indicated that he is likely to join the BJP very soon. “But I cannot say whether it will be in the evening or tomorrow,” he added. Asked whether he is also likely to be renominated to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket, Samantaray said he has been assured in this regard. This was the case with Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar, who had resigned from their Rajya Sabha seats while serving as BJD members, joined the BJP, and were successfully re-elected to the Upper House on a BJP ticket.
Samantaray came down heavily on the former private secretary of Naveen Patnaik, VK Pandian, for keeping him away from the BJD president. “Pandian is still running the BJD. He did not allow me to meet the party president for the last one year to discuss organisational matters as I was unhappy over the manner in which the BJD was being run. But I was not allowed to meet him. The party has been completely hijacked by him,” he added.
The senior leader also lashed out at Pandian and the coterie around him over the Biju-Naveen Trust, officially known as the Biju-Naveen Inspirational Foundation (BNIF). The property of Biju Patnaik at Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi has been transferred to the trust, he said, adding that he had opposed this from the very beginning. “Naveen babu said Pandian is not my successor, but gifted him the property of Biju Patnaik,” he said.
Meanwhile, Opposition chief whip Pramila Mallick and BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said Samantaray had no contribution to the BJD for the last four years. His resignation will have no impact on the BJD, they said, adding that Samantaray is going to join the BJP to protect his business interests.
