Overview
- Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray resigned from the vice president post of the BJD Senior Citizen Cell, rejecting the appointment in a letter dated November 24.
- He called the designation demeaning and criticized the "in the rank of vice president" tag as a bureaucratic construct unfit for a political party.
- The MP said the party failed to accept the causes of its 2024 assembly defeat or take remedial steps, citing eroding confidence after setbacks such as the Nuapada bypoll where the BJD fell to third.
- Samantaray alleged there appears to be a design to weaken the organization internally and requested Naveen Patnaik’s personal attention to the situation.
- He reaffirmed that he will remain a BJD worker committed to the Biju–Naveen line of thought, and there was no immediate official response from the party.