Odisha Congress suffers yet another jolt as party MLA Prakash Behera resigns

 A day after the visit of Congress President Rahul Gandhi to Odisha for electioneering ,sitting Congress MLA from Salepur Prakash Chandra Behera today resigned from the primary membership of the party.
In his resignation letter addressed to party president Rahul Gandhi with a copy to PCC president, Mr.Behera said he was humiliated by the party leadership after being removed from the Cuttack District president’s post.
Mr.Behera said he has been working for the Congress for last 20 years and regretted that despite his appeal to the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president, his grievance was not considered by the party which forced him to take the decision to quit the party.
Mr.Behera is the third sitting Congress MLA who has resigned from the party.
Earlier, party’s Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das and Sundargarh MLA Jogesh Singh have resigned from the party as well as from the legislature post in the Assembly.
Ironically, all the three Congress MLAs have resigned from the party during or after the visit of party president Rahul Gandhi in Odisha giving a big blow to the Congress party in the state.
Mr Naba Kishore Das and Mr.Jogesh Singh in the meanwhile joined the ruling BJD and are likely to contest the ensuing election as BJD candidate, Mr.Behera is all set to join the BJP and might be fielded as party candidate in the Assembly elections.
The ruling BJD has also suffered a jolt as two of its leaders- sitting MP from Nabarangpur lok sabha seat Balabhadra Majhi and Nilagiri MLA Sukanta Nayak have in last two days resigned from the party alleging that they have been neglected and ignored by the party.
Mr Majhi and Mr.Nayak are tipped to be inducted into the BJP and likely to contest the elections.
Political observers predicted that some more sitting MLAs form the ruling BJD are likely to quit the party in next few days when the party will debar them form contesting the ensuing assembly elections.
Odisha will go for polls simultaneously for both Assembly and Lok Sabha in four phases.