Bhubaneswar: A day after Sujeet Kumar joined BJP after resigning as BJD’s Rajya Sabha member, senior tribal leader and MP Mamata Mahanta on Saturday claimed that there are many disgruntled elements in the Naveen Patnaik-led regional party.
Mamata, who had recently quit the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and subsequently became a Rajya Sabha member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed that many others are likely to follow the path chosen by her and Sujeet Kumar very soon.
“There are many disgruntled leaders in BJD and several of them are likely to quit the regional party like me and Sujeet Kumar in the near future,” the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Claiming that many people in BJD are highly unhappy over the autocratic style in which the party is functioning, she went on to the regional party is not in a good shape in tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district.
Around 80 per cent of BJD workers in Mayurbhanj are highly disillusioned and dissatisfied as they are not getting any importance within the organisation, Mamata claimed.
Claiming that she had decided to quit BJD over a year and half ago, the BJP MP said some of the founder members of BJD are no longer with the regional party now, while some others are managing to be in the party. “They are all feeling suffocated in BJD and many of them will quit the party at the right time,” she claimed.
In his resignation from the membership of Rajya Sabha, Sujeet Kumar mentioned that he had taken the decision consciously.
Sujeet Kumar had been representing Odisha in the Upper House of Parliament since 2020.
His move came over a month after Mamata Mahanta, resigned from the Rajya Sabha as well as the primary membership of the BJD about two years before the end of her Rajya Sabha tenure. She was recently elected unopposed to the House of Elders from the BJP.
With this, the strength of the BJD in Rajya Sabha has come down to 7.
Sujit Kumar’s decision is being viewed as another attempt by the BJP to take leaders from the BJD into its fold and increase its strength in the Upper House.
Kumar has alleged that he was being threatened for last couple of years and asked to licking the feet of a few people in the BJD. “I was being systematically sidelined in the party. BJD leaders from district to state level were involved in corruption of thousands of crores which affected development of Kalahandi. There is evidence and it will be made public in the coming days… I took this step (resigning from BJD) in the interest of Kalahandi and my self-respect,” he alleged.
However, senior BJD leader and former Minister Debi Prasad Mishra countered Kumar and accused him of going against the party after enjoying all benefits. If he was facing problem in BJD, Kumar should have spoken out while being in the regional party, Mishra said.
