Manmath Routray, son of senior Congress leader and Jatni MLA Suresh Routray, has been suspended from the party.
The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) served a letter to Manmath, informing him of the disciplinary action taken against him.
“You have clearly given statement in media that you are independent and you have no connection with any political party. Though you are a PCC member, you have particularly said that you don’t belong to Indian National Congress. You have also said that you are free to visit BJP office and BJD office. You were served a show cause notice yesterday but you didn’t respond to it,” read the letter.
"The Disciplinary Action Committee of OPCC considers it to be a gross violation of discipline so you are suspended from the party,” the letter added.
When asked, OPCC disciplinary action committee chairman Santosh Singh Saluja said, “Manmath Routray is a PCC member. He was served a show-cause notice for giving a statement against the party. Since he didn’t reply to it, he has been suspended from the party.”
In his response, Manmath said, “If they (the Congress) were thinking me as a potential candidate, they should have checked my background. If I was accepted into the OPCC even by mistake, they should have known that I was a Central government employee. Now I am working with an international company. We have a set of rules. We cannot join any political party. By accepting me as a member, they had committed a mistake. Now, they have committed another mistake. In this regard, I will discuss with my father.”
When contacted, Suresh Routray said, “Since I am a loyal worker of the party, I have accepted the decision. But I am sure that the party would consider our case seriously. There is no dispute in my family. There is no difference of opinion as well. My two sons are highly educated. My younger son’s resignation has not been accepted as yet. He is in the cockpit of a New York-bound plane. I have already said that my younger son would contest the election from Jatni. And it is final.”
Notably, yesterday senior Congress leader Suresh Routray had said that his younger son Manmath Routray would definitely contest the 2024 general election on a Congress ticket from Jatni Assembly constituency. Prior to that, Manmath in an exclusive interview to OTV had said that he wouldn’t contest on a Congress ticket. Manmath had said that he had consulted each worker including college students, women and others; and, they had asked him to contest the upcoming elections but not on the Congress ticket.