Odisha: Another BJD Leader Quits Party Ahead Of Elections Alleging Neglect

Balasore: Amid the buzz over seat-sharing talks between BJP and BJD, a former legislator of the ruling party in Odisha, Sudarshan Jena, on Friday announced his resignation from primary membership of the party.

Addressing a presser in Balasore on Friday, Jena said that he felt sidelined in BJD and it had become difficult to meet the party president Naveen Patnaik, which was not the case earlier. “Bureaucrats are prevailing in the party. The ongoing alliance talks with power-hungry BJP, which is promoting perilous communal politics, also left me perplexed. Now, BJD has become Team B of BJP,” he said.

The former Remuna MLA added that he would soon join a national party that believes in secular principles to serve the people of Remuna.

Jena had won the Remuna Assembly seat on BJD ticket in 2009. He, however, lost to BJP’s Gobinda Chandra Das in the 2014 elections and was denied a party ticket in 2019 when BJD’s Sudhanshu Sekhar Parida won the seat. His political career would have been at stake had he been denied a party ticket again in 2024 elections, sources said.

On the other hand, the regional party had been witnessing an exodus ahead of the 2024 elections. Earlier this month, Telkoi MLA Premananda Nayak and Jayadev MLA Arabinda Dhali joined the BJP after resigning from BJD, alleging neglect in the ruling dispensation. Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy and Chilka MLA Prasanta Jagdev, who were expelled from the BJD, also joined the saffron camp in the recent past. They were followed by senior BJD leader and former state minister Debasis Nayak.

Former Dhamnagar MLA Rajendra Kumar Das, who was also expelled from BJD in 2022,  joined the BJP on March 4.