MP Jay Panda resigns from Lok Sabha

Bhubaneswar: Kendrapara MP Baijayant Jay Panda resigned from his Lok Sabha membership today. Panda, who took to Twitter to announce his decision, had quit BJD on May 28.

“In letter to NaveenP on my intent to dissociate from BJD, I'd said on completion of my father's kriyas I'd resign from LS. The day after they ended, I sought to meet Hon' Speaker as per custom. It wasn't possible & i understand she's since gone abroad, so I've had it deliverd(sic),” tweeted Panda.

Om May 28, in a three-page-long resignation letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Panda had written that he was ‘hurt and unhappy’ over the fact that members of the ruling party did not attend the funeral of his father Dr Bansidhar Panda.

Along with Baijayant Panda, former president of BJD Kendrapara Minority Cell Salim Khan, student leader Prafulla Swain and his political secretary Jyoti Prakash Ghose also tendered their resignations from the primary membership of the party.

In a recent interview to a national television channel following his resignation from BJD, Panda had revealed “How the party which he helped form has deviated from the core principles on which it was built and how he ultimately became the target for being vocal about such deviances within the party.”