Prominent Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Kendrapara Lok Sabha MP Baijayant Jay Panda quit his party yesterday after submitting his resignation letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
“It is with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I have decided to quit the kind of politics into which our BJD has descended,” said Panda in his letter, stating that a recent incident made him take this drastic decision, even though things had actually been “going from bad to worse for the past four years.”
The incident that the MP was referring to was the death of his father, Dr. Bansidhar Panda, just last week. He said the animosity between him and BJD leaders reached “absolute depths of inhumanity” when nobody from the party came to pay last respects to his father, who was known to be a very close friend, supporter and associate of Biju Patnaik, chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s father.
In fact, Panda claims that BJD leaders had been “restrained” from paying their respects to his father, and this makes him feel unwanted. He said he had been humiliated several times in the last four years, but this incident has finally made him realize that his self respect will prevent him from being associated with BJD further.
The lawmaker then went on to trace his association with the party as one of its founders and explained how things had gone from bad to worse in the past few years. He criticized BJD leaders’ “reprehensible Stalinist tactics” and said he will submit his resignation to Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan soon.
Panda had been suspended from BJD earlier this year for speaking out against some of the party’s leaders publicly. He has had a fall out with chief minister Naveen Patnaik as well for criticizing his colleagues in the past.