BHUBANESWAR: In a sudden development, BJD Rajya Sabha member Mamata Mohanta on Wednesday resigned from the upper house of the Parliament – and primary membership of the regional party – 21 months ahead of her tenure.

A tribal leader from Kudumi community of Mayurbhanj district, Mohanta was elected to the Rajya Sabha on April 3, 2020 and her tenure was to end on April 2, 2026.

Mohanta took to her X handle to announce her resignation, leaving the BJD shocked as the party had no inkling about the MP’s move. “I resigned from Rajya Sabha today. I have also sent my resignation letter to BJD president Naveen Patnaik. I feel the BJD does not require my service anymore,” she said.

Explaining the reason behind her decision to quit from Rajya Sabha and the BJD, she said, the party had given her opportunity to serve the people of Mayurbhanj district and the state as a member of zilla parishad, and the Rajya Sabha.

In her resignation letter to the BJD president, Mohanta said, “I feel that there is no requirement of my service as well as my community in the Biju Janata Dal. Therefore, I have taken this hard decision in public interest. I request you to accept my resignation.”

“As a leader of the people, my first and foremost duty is to serve them. Therefore, there is no need to continue as member of the party. This is precisely why I quit Rajya Sabha and the BJD,” she said in her X post.

Though Mohanta cited reasons for her decision to quit Rajya Sabha and BJD as well, political circles were abuzz with speculations that it was a strategic move by the BJP as part of a bigger plan to send party’s state president Manmohan Samal to the Rajya Sabha so that he could be accommodated in the union council of ministers. It was Samal who led the party to a stunning victory in the state in the recent General Elections though he himself lost from the Chandbali Assembly seat.

“After the resounding victory of the BJP in the state that contributed in a massive way to the Narendra Modi government at Centre by sending a record 20 MPs, it had become a moral obligation of the central leadership to suitably accommodate Samal who helped the party come to power under his leadership,” said sources.