Bhubaneswar: Sitting BJD MLA of Mohana Basanti Mallick on Thursday resigned from the primary membership of the party.
Mallick has sent her resignation letter to the party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, expressing dismay over the denial of party ticket.
Notably, Basanti won the seat by defeating her nearest Congress rival Dasarathi Gomango by a close margin of only 115 votes in 2014.
However, the party leadership ignored her for the Assembly polls in 2019 by picking Purnabasi Nayak as its official candidate.
With the resignation of Mallick, eight elected representatives of BJD have resigned from the party till date.
They are Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi, Kalahandi MP Arka Kesari Deo, Kandhamal MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh, Nilagiri MLA Sukant Nayak, Gunupur MLA Trinath Gomango, Daspalla MLA Purna Chandra Nayak and Aska MLA Debaraj Mohanty.
