‘Treated as furniture’, Odisha BJP leaders Dilip Ray, Bijoy Mohapatra quit party

Mangalore Today News Network

Odisha, Nov 30, 2018 : Two influential political leaders from the BJP unit of Odisha, Dilip Ray and Bijoy Mohapatra, on Friday sent a joint resignation letter to National President Amit Shah, citing apathy towards the state and “dirty tricks” against them by the party, IndianExpress reported.

 

Ray, the incumbent MLA from Rourkela, also met Odisha Legislative Assembly Speaker Pradip Kumar Amat and handed over his resignation.

“We cannot be treated as furniture in the party while the ‘rootless’ talk big and project a larger than life image”, the letter stated. Requesting anonymity, a BJP leader said that the accusations in the letter seem to be directed to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

“The word ‘rootless’ seems to be directed at Pradhan, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh”, the leader added. The Union Minister is expected to be the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in the upcoming assembly polls in 2019.

Citing issues like the Mahanadi water dispute with Chhattisgarh, second bridge over the Brahmani River, a super specialty hospital at Rourkela and jobs for Odiya youth, the letter to Shah said, “We regret to state that despite repeated efforts in appraising you on the sorry state of affairs in the party here (Odisha), neither you nor any senior central party leader bothered to consult, review or take corrective measures”.

“The well-meaning suggestions by us to you were construed as a threat by certain egocentric self-serving individuals who resorted to dirty tricks and a campaign was launched in our respective constituencies to try and deride us”, the letter alleged.

Ray, a former Union Minister, was the incumbent MLA from Rourkela, while Mohapatra, a former state cabinet minister, had previously won multiple times from Patkura assembly constituency in Kendrapara.

The letter also terms the saffron party’s loss by 40,000 votes in the Bijepur bypolls to the BJD earlier this year as “a shocker”. It says the party “lost all the bypolls held at the panchayat level, more so, in pockets of many self-styled tall leaders”.

“We refuse to continue in the party as showpieces”, the letter to Shah said.

In a Facebook post, Ray also announced that he will not contest the upcoming assembly elections in 2019 from Rourkela. The post said, “Being the public representative of the region… I consider it as my personal failure and inability to deliver on commitments… two issues on which I fought the 2014 elections”.

Ray later clarified the “two issues” as the upgradation of the Indira Gandhi Hospital (IGH) to a Super Speciality Hospital and Medical College and a second Brahmani Bridge. In the post, Ray alleged that only some departments in IGH have been modernized so far while only the foundation stone for the bridge was laid last year.

“Someone very powerful is deliberately creating impediments in the execution of these projects, just to ensure I don’t walk away with the credit… there is also a perception that until I continue as the MLA, these demands will not be fulfilled”, the post stated.