Bhubaneswar/Balasore, March 13 Senior BJP leader and former Balasore MLA Jiban Pradip Dash announced his resignation from the party's primary membership on Friday, alleging "moral degradation" by the state leadership.
Dash, who has been an MLA three times, made the announcement at a press conference in Balasore, protesting the recent induction of chit fund-tainted former BJD MP Rabindra Kumar Jena into the BJP.
"I cannot accept the way the party's moral standards have declined after coming to power in the 2024 Odisha election. By inducting a person accused in a chit fund scandal, against whom a CBI case is pending and who is out on bail, the party has strayed far from its value-based politics," Dash said, dealing a major blow to the BJP's state leadership.
Further targeting the state leadership, he added: "It has lost all morality by taking in a chit fund accused and by fielding an Independent candidate without the required numbers to win the polls. In the process, the party has encouraged horse-trading."
Dash, a former Air Force serviceman, was first elected to the Assembly in 2000 on a BJP ticket. He later joined the BJD and won elections in 2009 and 2014 from the Balasore Sadar Assembly constituency. In 2020, he was suspended from the BJD for anti-party activities, after which he rejoined the BJP in 2021.
Dash said he has not yet decided on his future course of action.
Meanwhile, Balasore MP and former Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi reportedly held discussions with Dash.
Reacting to the induction of Jena into the BJP, Sarangi said on Friday that he was not consulted before the decision was taken.
Speaking from Delhi to an Odia news channel, he said, "I am not confident whether the party will benefit by taking Jena into the BJP fold. Jena had called me the day before and also a day after his joining. I told him that Parliament is in session, I am in New Delhi, and I will meet him after I return to Odisha."
Jena joined the BJP on Wednesday along with his supporters from Balasore, Bhadrak, and Mayurbhanj districts.
He was welcomed by BJP state president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders.