Suspended MP Baijayant Panda announced in a letter that he’d be quitting the BJD. In a letter to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, he said that he had decided to quit the party. He wrote that he was 'heartbroken' that none of his party members came to pay their respects when his father passed away.
Suspended MP Baijayant Panda announced in a letter that he’d be quitting the BJD. In a letter to Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, he said that he had decided to quit the party. He wrote that he was 'heartbroken' that none of his party members came to pay their respects when his father passed away.
He wrote: “It is with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I've decided to quit the kind of politics into which BJD has descended.” He slammed Naveen Patnaik and others for not attending his father’s funeral and wrote: “With the BJD and you yourself having made it abundantly clear that I am unwanted, it is only right for me to dissociate with from it.”
The BJD suspended Panda, the MP from Kendrapara, for alleged anti-party activities on January 24. The party has also accused Panda of submitting a false affidavit before the Election Commission during the 2014 general elections, a charge denied by the leader.
"Panda has concealed that he is working as an employee of IMFA and drawing crores of rupees as salary. What made him conceal this fact?" BJD vice-president and party MLA Bedprakash Agarwal had asked.
He also concealed this in the affidavit dated March 21, 2014 filed as part of his nomination papers for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Agarwal had said.
Panda has misled the party and the people of his constituency and "lost moral authority to continue as Member of Parliament from Kendrapara," he said.
Panda, however, claimed that the party is well aware of his family background and association with the organisation.
"The allegations against me are totally false and baseless. I always consult top lawyers of the country while submitting affidavit before the EC," Panda told reporters.
Panda was elected to Lok Sabha in 2009 and 2014 and had been a Rajya Sabha member from 2000 to 2009.
With inputs from PTI
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