Third BJD Rajya Sabha MP Debashish Samantaray resigns, likely to join BJP

1 min readMay 25, 2026 12:09 PM IST

BJD Rajya Sabha member Debashish Samantaray on Monday resigned from the primary membership of the party. He is likely to join BJP.

In his resignation letter to party president Naveen Patnaik, Samantaray said he has been “systematically belittled in the party”

“I feel party does not require my services. Therefore. I have taken this hard decision in public interest,” said Samantaray.

After Mamata Mahanta and Sujeet Kumar, Samantaray is the third Rajya Sabha member from BJD who switched to BJP.

With Samantaray’s resignation, BJD’s number in Rajya Sabha reduced to five.