‘HURT AND UNHAPPY’, BIJU JANATA DAL MP JAY PANDA QUITS PARTY >htnation p9

BHUBANESWAR, NEWDELHI: Less than a year before Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) goes to Lok Sabha and assembly polls, its face in Delhi, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, quit the party on Monday.

The resignation, which has been widely anticipated for several months — he was suspended from the BJD in January — seems to have been triggered by the fact that no BJD leader came to pay their last respects after his father died last week.

“It is with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I have decided to quit the kind of politics into which our BJD has descended,” Panda wrote to Patnaik in a letter. Panda lamented that after he was “viciously targeted and “physically assaulted” in Mahanga, Patnaik didn’t even bother to call to enquire about his health and safety. He also observed that “it is ironic that many of the worst opponents and critics of you are now holding key positions in the party while most of those who struggled with you to overcome them have been discarded.”

With 20 MPs, the BJD is the fourth-largest party in the Lok Sabha. It was previously supportive of the Narendra Modi government in the House but relations have turned sour over the Mahanadi water row.

BJD insiders, however, alleged that Panda was seen drifting towards the BJP.

He “even defended Modi and his polices repeatedly,” said a senior BJD leader who asked not to be identified.

When contacted, Panda’s office said his father expired last week and he will comment only after all the rituals are over in the second week of June.