Bhubaneswar: Veteran BJD leader Raghunath Mohanty quits party
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Mohanty had resigned as the chairman of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation.
Bhubaneswar: Trouble seems to be far from over for the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) as senior leaders continue to quit party with elections just round the corner.
After Bhadrak Lok Sabha member Arjun Sethi, another senior leader Raghunath Mohanty resigned on Sunday from the primary membership of Biju Janata Dal.
Earlier on Saturday, Mr Mohanty had resigned as the chairman of the Odisha Lift Irrigation Corporation.
Though Mr Mohanty in his resignation letter cited personal reasons, he later expressed his displeasure over the functioning and state of affairs in the BJD at a presser in Bhubaneswar.
“I was one of the founding members of BJD. I was forced to resign for the ‘swabhiman’ of party workers and people in Balasore. The party was formed on the ideologies of late Biju Babu. However, it has now strayed from the founding principles due to the conspiracy hatched by some persons in the party. This has hurt the leaders who founded the party,” said Mr Mohanty.
Regarding his next political course of action, Mr Mohanty said, “I will soon take a decision on whether to contest polls or not shortly as preparations have reached final stages in Balasore.”
Earlier, four of the party 20 Lok Sabha members – Baijayant Jay Panda, Patyusha Rajeswari Singh, Arka Keshari Deo and Balabhadra Majhi.
Five of the sitting BJD MLAs and several former lawmakers of the party had also resigned from the party expressing displeasure over ticket distribution.
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