Odisha BJP Vice President Lekhasri Samantsinghar Quits Party, May Join BJD

Bhubaneswar: With elections barely weeks away, the Odisha BJP suffered a setback on Sunday with vice president Lekhasri Samantsinghar resigning from the primary membership of the party.

In her resignation letter to state BJP president Manmahan Samal, Lekhasri said that she decided to quit the saffron party having failed to earn the trust of the leadership. “I have given my sweat and blood to the Bharatiya Janata Party since the last ten years. However, despite all the sincerity and hard work, I could not earn the trust of the leadership. Hence, I feel there is nothing left for me to do here and my desire to serve the people of Odisha is being hampered,” she wrote.

Samantsighar had often grabbed the headlines for launching a frontal attack on the Naveen Patnaik government describing it as a corrupt government.

Speculation is rife that she might switch sides and get a BJD ticket to contest the upcoming election from Balasore Lok Sabha seat.

The regional party, which had started the trend of fielding women candidates in one-third of Lok Sabha seats in 2019, has so far given tickets to 6 women. In 2009, Rabindra Jena unsuccessfully contested from Balasore as BJD’s MP candidate. He is unlikely to be renominated this time as his wife Subhashree Jena is contesting for Basta assembly segment.