JOIN USSenior tribal leader and former chief minister Odisha, Giridhar Gamang, on Saturday resigned from the Congress.
A nine-time Lok Sabha member and Union minister under three Congress prime ministers—Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao—he was also an ex-chief of the state unit of the party.
“I have resigned from the primary membership of the Congress, and have already sent my resignation letter to party president Sonia Gandhi,” he said at a crowded press conference here about the party he was associated with for more than 40 years.
Gamang attributed his decision to the Congress leadership’s failure to protect him from public humiliation from different quarters for going against the NDA in the Lok Sabha in 1999, which had ensured the fall of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
“I had done no wrong and had obeyed the party’s direction. I was publicly humiliated for it, but the Congress never protected me on the issue since then. I decided to quit the party after waiting for more than 15 years,” he said.
Gamang had attended the Lok Sabha to vote in the motion against the government though he had already been sworn in as chief minister of Odisha. However, he had not resigned from the Lok Sabha back then, and neither had he been elected to the state Assembly. The government lost the motion by a single vote—that of Gamang. He was subsequently elected to the Odisha Assembly in a by-poll.