Second Big Blow To BJD In Rajya Sabha As Sujeet Kumar Does A Mamata Mahanta

Bhubaneswar: In another blow to Biju Janata Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha, its Rajya Sabha member Sujeet Kumar resigned from the Upper House on Friday amid speculation that he might join the BJP.

Moments later, he was expelled from the BJD for anti-party activities. “He has let down the party which sent him to Rajya Sabha and hopes and aspirations of people of Kalahandi district,” said a party office order signed by president Naveen Patnaik.

In his resignation from the membership of Rajya Sabha, Kumar mentioned that he had taken the decision consciously. He has been representing Odisha in the Upper House since 2020.

This comes over a month after Mamata Mahanta, a prominent leader of the Kudumi community in Odisha, 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.

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.

Reacting to the development, senior BJP leader Pratap Sarangi said that it is an internal affair of BJD. “Big leaders of BJD are quitting the party as they were earlier not able to express their views. The BJP is a national party and he might join it,” he said.