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This story is from May 28, 2018

Suspended Biju Janata Dal leader Baijayant Panda quits party

Suspended Biju Janata Dal leader Baijayant Panda quits party
Baijayant (Jay) Panda (Photo: ANI)
Key Highlights
  • Panda, a Member of Parliament, was on January 24 suspended by BJD president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik for indulging in "anti-party activities"
  • In a letter to Patnaik informing him of his decision to quit the party, Panda said he's "deeply anguished"
NEW DELHI: Baijayant (Jay) Panda, who was suspended from primary membership of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in January, today quit the party reported ANI news agency.
Panda, a Member of Parliament, was on January 24 suspended by BJD president and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik for indulging in "anti-party activities". Later that month he was asked to quit, which he has only done today.
In a letter to Patnaik informing him of his decision to quit the party, Panda said he's "deeply anguished".

"It's with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I have decided to quit the politics into which our BJD has descended," wrote Panda, adding that he'll soon formally convey his decision to the Lok Sabha speaker.
Ever since the BJD suspended Panda for alleged anti-party activities, there has been speculation that he may quit the party that he helped form, given his bitterness with chief minister Patnaik’s trusted IAS officer VK Pandian. The point of no rapprochement became obvious when Naveen and BJD leaders did not pay respect to Panda’s father Bansidhar Panda who died on May 22. Bansidhar Panda, who founded the IMFA Group, is revered as a key architect of industrialization in Odisha.

“I was heart-broken when several BJD colleagues conveyed that they had been restrained from coming by to pay their last respects to the departed soul. That the BJD doesn’t me anymore, and in fact wants me out, is now irrefutably clear. I have stoically borne many humiliations over the past four years, but this is the last straw, it is now beyond my self-respect to continue to be associated with the party in an atmosphere as mean minded as this,” the 54-year-old Kendrapada MP wrote in his resignation letter to Patnaik.
Panda, a four-time MP, used to be BJD’s face in Delhi till he was sidelined in Naveen’s current term.
After suspending him in January, the BJD asked Panda to resign from the Lok Sabha on moral and ethical grounds. The party also accused Panda of submitting a false affidavit before the Election Commission during the 2014 general elections, a charge denied by Panda.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, a court in Odisha’s Kendrapada district ordered police to register a criminal case against Panda, for allegedly filing an incorrect affidavit during the 2014 general election.
The court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate gave the order on a plea filed by one Dilip Kumar Das. Das had filed a complaint on Tuesday against Panda in the SDJM’s court for allegedly submitting a “false” affidavit while filing his nomination papers for the Kendrapada Lok Sabha seat four years ago.
Panda was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014 and had been a Rajya Sabha member from 2000 to 2009.
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About the Author
Ashok Pradhan

Ashok Pradhan is currently chief of bureau The Times of India in Bhubaneswar. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Dhenkanal (1999-2000).

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