Raghunath Mohanty, a senior BJD leader, and the vice-president of the party resigned from the post on Sunday, accusing the party of deviating from the ideology and principles of the legendary leader Biju Patnaik. The resignation of the leader might act as a misfortune of the BJD with elections after a few days.
Raghunath Mohanty has sent a letter to the Chief Minister Patnaik expressing his decision of resigning the primary membership of the regional party. He cited ‘personal reasons’ to leave the party, however, he is believed to have left the party after being denied the party ticket from Basta assembly seat in Balasore district.
“Though I was one of the founding members of the party and served as a dedicated leader and worker, the party leadership sidelined me and ignored me with several other members. There is no internal democracy in the party. I felt that the party no more requires my services and therefore, I decided to resign in order to keep my self-respect and pride of the people of Balasore intact,” Mohanty said.
Mohanty has been an MLA from Basta for five consecutive terms since 1990. He had to resign from the ministry in 2013 March after he was arrested in a dowry torture case slapped by his daughter-in-law. After that, he was denied the party ticket in 2014 in spite of his service in Basta parliamentary. In 2018, he was reinstated as the party vice-president and was made the observer of the party affairs in Dhenkanal district.
In recent developments for BJP, an eight-time MP and former Union minister Arjun Sethi quit BJD and joined the saffron party on Saturday.
Though BJD is yet to announce its candidate for Basta under Balasore Parliamentary constituency, sources said that Subasisni Jena, wife of sitting Balasore MO Rabindra Jena may be fielded for the seat for the upcoming polls.