Former Minister and ruling BJD MLA from Telkoi (ST) Assembly seat, Premananda Nayak, has resigned from the primary membership of the party.
In a letter to BJD supremo and party President Naveen Patnaik, the two-time MLA from the Telkoi (ST) seat has sent in his resignation from the primary membership of the party.
Sources said Premananda, who held the position of Minister of State (Ind) Skill Development and Technical Education in the Naveen Patnaik from 2019 to 2022, had written a letter to party President Naveen Patnaik in October 2023 expressing his discontent with being ignored in the party.
The ruling BJD had inducted Dhanurjay Sidhu, a former Congress MLA from the Champua Assembly seat who had also unsuccessfully contested the 2014 Assembly election as a Congress candidate from the Telkoi (ST) seat, into the party fold.
Sidhu, before the 2019 Assembly election, quit the Congress, joined the BJP, and contested the Telkoi Assembly seat against Premananda Nayak but was defeated.
He later quit the BJP and joined the BJD, and he was made the party’s general secretary against the wishes of Premananda Nayak.
