Senior leader Raghunath Mohanty quits BJP

Senior leader Raghunath Mohanty resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday. Mohanty sent his resignation letter to the Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal. 

His resignation has come at a time when the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has not yet announced its MP candidate for the Balasore Lok Sabha seat. However, Mohanty has not indicated about his next course of action.

Raghunath Mohanty was elected from the Basta Assembly seat five times in a row since 1990 and was a minister holding several portfolios like Parliamentary Affairs, Steel, Industries and Mines, Panchayatiraj, Law, Urban Development and Information and Technology in the Naveen Patnaik government between 2006 and 2013.

However, Mohanty and his family got mired in a controversy after a dowry torture allegation was brought by his daughter-in-law in 2013. He was also arrested in the case.

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The BJD had suspended him from the party and denied him a ticked in 2014. 

He was reinstated in the party in March 2018. However, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, he quit the BJD and joined the BJP.  

No comments have been received from Mohanty.