Ruling BJD suffers another jolt as veteran party MP Arjun Sethi resigns

Sethy, a longest serving MP from the statem, who had won the Bhadrak Lok Sabha(SC) seat eight times in the past resigned from the party , expressing his dissatisfaction over the distribution of party tickets for the ensuing election.

Sethi also resigned from the Lok Sabha as well as from the post of Bhadrak District Party President. He is the third sitting BJD MP to resign from the party.
Earlier, party’s Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi and Kandhmal MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh had also resigned from the party, after being denied ticket, questioning the functioning of the party affairs and also on the distribution of tickets.

Both Majhi and Pratyusha had already joined the BJP and the former is seeking reelection from Nabarangpur(ST) Lok Sabha seat as BJP candidate.

A teacher by profession,  Sethi a popular SC leader in north Odisha was first elected to the 5th and 6th LoK Sabha from Bhadrak parliamentary constituency on Congress ticket.

Subsequently, he switched his loyalty to Janata Dal and later Biju Janata Dal, and consecutively won the seat from 10th Lok Sabha election, first as Janata Dal candidate and later as BJD candidate.

He was made Water Resource minister during 2000-2004 in the A B Vajpayee government.

Sethi was also elected twice to Odisha Assembly from Bhandaripokhari constituency as a Janata dal candidate.