Samikhsya Bureau
In an apparent fallout of the Biju Janata Dal’s decision of 33 per cent reservation in Lok Sabha seats for women candidates, Balbhadra Majhi, sitting BJD MP from Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat, on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the party.
Majhi submitted his resignation letter to chief minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik expressing displeasure over the functioning of the party.
The resignation of the BJD MP came after the party’s observer for Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat submitted the list of probable candidates for the seat to Naveen Patnaik. The BJD president yesterday discussed about the possible candidates for Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Berhampur and Koraput Lok Sabha seats besides 28 Assembly constituencies falling under these Lok Sabha constituencies.
Soon after submitting his resignation letter, Majhi told the waiting newsmen that he decided to quit the party as he felt that the party was not functioning democratically as it should have been and he has been ignored by the party in the past on several occasions.
The BJD MP quit his government job with seven years service in hand after he was drafted into the BJD and successfully contested the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 elections.
In his resignation letter, Majhi alleged that some leaders in the party are misleading the chief minister and party supremo and held the party responsible for the state of affairs. The BJD MP alleged that during the last few months he was neither invited to any party meeting nor for any discussion despite being a Parliament member of the party.
“Why should I remain in a party where despite being a sitting MP, I would not be invited to attend any decision making body?” Majhi said .
He said the distance between him and the party supremo widened as some people have misled him. To a question he, however, denied that he decided to resign from the BJD after he came to know that the party is likely to field ST and SC development minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi in his place as the party candidate for the ensuing Lok Sabha election.
Balabhadra Majhi said it was the party president’s discretion as to whom to field as party candidate and he has nothing to comment on it. The BJD MP alleged that everything was not well in the party and the BJD was not functioning democratically. The office bearers of the party are either nominated or selected and never being elected democratically.
Replying to another question, Majhi said he has not yet decided whether to join any political party and contest the coming election. He said he would talk to his supporters in his constituency and take a decision in this regard as per their suggestion.
Patnaik recently announced that the BJD would field 33 per cent women the Lok Sabha elections. That translates to seven women candidates. Odisha has a total of 21 Lok Sabha seats out of which the BJD got 20 seats in 2014.
Soon after Patnaik’s annoucement, many BJD Lok Sabha MPs have apprehended that they would be denied tickets this time. Many observers believe that it may have led Dhenkanal MP Tathagat Satpathy’s decision to quit politics, though he said he wanted to devote more time to his publications, Odia daily Dharitri and English daliy Odisha Post.
