3 min readUpdated: May 25, 2026 03:04 PM IST
Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray, who had earlier accused the party of “deviating from its core ideology” and questioned the “sidelining of Biju loyalists”, resigned from the party Monday — the third leader to do so since the BJD lost power in 2024. He is set to join the BJP soon.
Samantaray met Rajya Sabha Chairman and Vice-President of India C P Radhakrishnan and tendered his resignation. In his resignation letter to party president Naveen Patnaik, Samantaray said he had been “systematically belittled in the party”.
“I feel that the party does not require my services. Therefore, I have taken this hard decision in the public interest,” said Samantaray.
After Mamata Mahanta and Sujeet Kumar, who resigned from the party in 2024 and were renominated on BJP tickets, Samantaray is the third Rajya Sabha member to quit the BJD. With his resignation, the BJD’s strength in the Rajya Sabha has come down to five.
Samantaray, a two-time MLA from the Cuttack-Barabati Assembly segment, was known to be a loyalist of the BJD president and to have access to Patnaik’s inner circle. He lost the 2019 Assembly election to Congress candidate Mohammad Moquim but was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the party ahead of the 2024 general and Assembly elections.
In November last year, when Samantaray was among a group of senior leaders appointed to what he considered “less significant posts” in the party, he declined to accept the “bureaucratic” style of appointment. He had been made in-charge of the senior citizens’ cell with the rank of vice-president.
In a strongly worded letter to Patnaik, Samantaray had said that, besides sounding bureaucratic, the designation was “demeaning and humiliating”.
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Samantaray’s public outburst against the party came in April last year when he abstained from voting on the Waqf Bill in the Rajya Sabha, expressing displeasure over the party’s last-minute change in stance to allow MPs to vote according to their conscience, despite opposing the Bill during the discussion. The senior leader publicly accused Patnaik’s close aide and former bureaucrat V K Pandian of being behind the last-minute flip-flop.
Earlier, Samantaray had also alleged that his requests to meet Patnaik personally to discuss certain party-related issues had been declined several times.
By inducting Samantaray, the BJP appears to be aiming to strengthen its base in Cuttack city.
The BJD, however, said Samantaray’s resignation would have no impact on the party. Senior BJD leader Pramila Mallik said he had remained in touch with the BJP after the BJD’s defeat in the 2024 Assembly polls.
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“He (Samantaray) has never raised any issue pertaining to the state’s interest in the Rajya Sabha. He joined BJD for his personal gain and now left after his wish was fulfilled. His exit will have no impact on BJD,” said Mallik.
