Cuttack: Senior BJD leader and six-time MP from Cuttack, Bhartruhari Mahtab today resigned from the party a day after chargsheet framed against him in a 13 year old case.
Speaking to media persons in Cuttack, Shri Mahtab announced his resignation from the BJD and said he has submitted a resignation letter to party President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at 4 PM.
Shri Mahtab expressed displeasure over framing of the charge-sheet against him and said he was not able to work properly within the BJD.
“Whenever I was making some statement, it was exaggerated by the party. When I spoke in support of uniform civil code, the party here said it was my personal opinion. Not only this, many such things happened to me in the past,” the MP said.
Because of BJD, Shri Mahtab said he chose to remain silent during the past one and half years.
Targeting the BJD, he said, the party has now diverted from its ideology adopted during its formation. The party was formed to fight against corruption and self-asset creation in Odisha. But, now it has deviated from its goal, he said.
Commenting on framing of chargesheet against him, the six-time MP alleged that the Government has framed the charge-sheet against its own MP.
Notably, a special court in Cuttack has framed charges against the Lok Sabha Member under IPC Section 353 for assaulting a police officer on duty 13 years back.
Shri Mahtab was elected as BJD candidate from Cuttack parliamentary constituency for six consecutive times.
He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Cuttack. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He retained the seat for BJD in 2019 by defeating Prakash Mishra of BJP.
