Bhubaneswar: Former Deputy Speaker of the Odisha Assembly, Rama Chandra Panda, sitting MLA from Soro Assembly seat Parshuram Dhada, BJD Athamallik MLA Ramesh Chandra Sai, and former Phulbani MLA Debendra Kanhar have resigned from the primary membership of the BJD in Odisha.
These three leaders sent their resignations to party President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after being denied party tickets to contest the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state.
Panda, who was also holding the post of Advisor to the Agriculture and Farmers Empowerment Department, had resigned earlier after the Model Code of Conduct came into force.
The former Deputy Speaker, who joined the BJD in 2017 after quitting the BJP, alleged that the BJD lacks internal democracy and has deviated from its ideology on which the regional party was formed after the demise of the legendary leader and former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.
Senior BJD leader and Soro MLA Parshuram Dhada, BJD sitting MLA from Athamallik Ramesh Chandra Sai along with former Phulbani MLA Debendra Kanhar, also resigned from the party when they were denied party tickets by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik, who released the candidate lists for 27 Assembly seats Wednesday in the second phase.
This time, the BJD has fielded Madhav Dhada to replace sitting MLA Parshuram Dhada and former Engineer-in-Chief Nalini Pradhan for Athagarh Assembly seat replacing Sai.
UNI