Senior BJD Leader Bhartruhari Mahtab Quits Party Aheads Of Odisha Elections

Cuttack: Senior BJD leader and Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab on Friday resigned from the regional party with the twin elections in Odisha barely 2 months away.

Addressing a presser here, the 6-time MP said that he sent his resignation letter to party president Naveen Patnaik at 4 pm. “With a heavy heart, I have resigned from the primary membership of the the party with which I have been associated since its inception and have been part of its success story,” he said, mentioning the content of the letter.

He ended his over two-and-a-half decade-long association with the BJD a day after a special court framed charges against him in a 13-year-old case in which the MP was accused of assaulting a police officer in Cuttack.

While accusing the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD of deviating from its vision of fighting corruption and self-aggrandisement, Bhartruhari said that his suggestions on improving the functioning of the BJD have fallen on deaf ears. “There is a limit to one’s patience. I feel I can fight these issues better by dissociating myself from the party,” he said.

The veteran parliamentarian added that he felt constrained in his scope of work within the BJD.

His resignation came minutes after state BJP president Mamohan Samal reiterated that the saffron party would contest all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Vidhan Sabha seats in Odisha through a post on X. The alliance talks had earlier put Bhartruhari in a sticky wicket as there were reports that the ruling BJD, which was insisting on keeping the Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency in the seat-sharing deal, might drop him for his alleged saffron leaning.

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Bhartruhari, who has been the steady face of BJD from Cuttack having been elected six times from the Lok Sabha constituency since 1998, have been creating ripples in political circles with his growing proximity to BJP. His meeting with Amit Shah in New Delhi in January had also fuelled speculation about the Cuttack MP joining Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the upcoming elections.

It may be recalled that Shah was also the chief guest at the 75th anniversary celebration of Odia daily Prajatantra, which Bhartruhari edits, at Cuttack in 2022. Union Education Minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan in March 2023 also hailed him as Bhishma Pitamah of Odisha politics. “I call Bhartruhari Mahtab grandsire Bhishma. He has brought glory to Odisha by becoming MP six times. Just like Bhishma Pitamah, he will draw curtains on his political career only when he wants to. But making statements like he will not be able to win even a councillor post was uncalled for,” he said while referring to a statement made by a BJD leader against him.

Notably, Bhartruhari was conferred with the ‘Sansad Ratna’ award for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020 for his commendable performance in Parliament debates.