BJD Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray quits party, says he was 'systematically belittled'

New Delhi: The post-2024 electoral debacle continues to trigger trouble in Naveen Patnaik-led BJD with its Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray quitting the party and membership in the Upper House.

He claimed that he has been "systematically belittled" despite working for the party with "utmost conviction and commitment".

A vocal critic of Patnaik's eyes and ears VK Pandian, a former bureaucrat-turned-politician, Samantaray shot off a letter to the BJD chief before submitting his resignation from Rajya Sabha to Chairman CP Radhakrishnan. While there was no official word, he is speculated to join BJP soon.

With this, BJD's strength in Rajya Sabha has come down to five and in a bypoll, BJP is likely to win the seat owing to its numerical strength in the Assembly.

Samantaray, who has a tenure till April 2030, is the third Rajya Sabha MP to quit the party following BJD's debacle in Odisha Assembly election and Lok Sabha polls in 2024. Earlier, Mamata Mohanta and Sujit Kumar had resigned from Rajya Sabha and returned to the Upper House on a BJP ticket with the latter re-elected for another term later.

In the recent Rajya Sabha polls, a BJD-Congress joint candidate could not win the election as a section of BJD and Congress MLAs cross-voted that enabled BJP-backed Independent Dilip Ray to grab the seat. Several BJD leaders had joined the BJP, which won the Odisha Assembly polls trouncing Patnaik who was in power for 24 years, following the 2024 elections.

Samantaray, who was a three-term MLA before entering Rajya Sabha, said in his letter that he was indebted to Patnaik for nominating him to Rajya Sabha and expressed his "deepest gratitude" to him for giving him an opportunity to serve people of "undivided Cuttack district" and to raise issues of Odisha at large at the national level.

"I have always dedicated myself to the interest of the party and have, over the years, worked for the party with utmost conviction and commitment. However, I feel that, of late, I have been systematically belittled in the party and that the party does not require my services. Therefore, I have taken this hard decision in public to request you to accept my resignation (from the party)," he said.

Samantaray, who had earlier resigned as BJD senior citizens' cell vice president in November last year, has been opposed to the influence Pandian had in party affairs and repeatedly claimed that the former bureaucrat continued to influence decision-making in the BJD. He also claimed that the BJD has moved away from the ideology and principles of former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik.

BJD downplayed the resignation with party's Odisha Chief Whip Pramila Mallik alleging that Samantaray left the party to protect his business interests and his exit would not weaken the party but would actually strengthen it. "He was in politics to do business and not to serve the people," Mallik was quoted by PTI as saying.