New Delhi, May 25 (H.S.): Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Debashish Samantaray on Monday resigned from the Rajya Sabha membership. He also submitted his resignation to Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan. Earlier, he had written to BJD president Naveen Patnaik announcing his resignation from the party’s primary membership as well. In his letter, he accused the party leadership of neglect and sidelining him.

After submitting his resignation to the Chairman in New Delhi, Samantaray told reporters that he had sent a letter to BJD president Naveen Patnaik earlier in the morning resigning from the party’s primary membership. He said that the letter mentioned several reasons behind his decision, following which he proceeded to resign from his Rajya Sabha seat.

Samantaray said:

“I felt that I had no future in the BJD because the party continues to function under the influence of V. K. Pandian. The leadership is unwilling to introspect over the party’s electoral defeat.”

He further stated that assigning excessive political responsibility to a non-political individual had damaged both the party’s image and organisational structure.

On the possibility of joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samantaray said that, as a politician, he preferred to keep his options open and that the situation would become clear soon. He added that the BJP could emerge as the most suitable political option for him.

Samantaray also pointed out that the BJD had previously run a coalition government with the BJP during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and therefore there was no ideological discomfort in aligning with the BJP again.

He claimed that the mistakes of the BJD leadership and the role of V. K. Pandian were among the primary reasons behind the BJP coming to power in Odisha.

However, Samantaray did not describe Naveen Patnaik’s tenure in office as unsuccessful. He stated that during the 25 years of BJD governance, there were no major administrative failures, although the party organisation had weakened significantly.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar