Ex-Minister Raghunath Mohanty Quits BJP

Bhubaneswar: Former state minister and five-time MLA of Basta in Balasore district, Raghunath Mohanty resigned from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday.

He sent his resignation letter to Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal.

Raghunath Mohanty, the former five-time MLA from Basta had joined the saffron party in 2019 after quitting the BJD. He contested from the Basta seat on a BJP ticket in 2019 but was defeated by BJD’s Nityananda Sahoo.

Mohanty was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Basta in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2004 and 2009 elections. He was BJD’s vice-president. He was removed from the BJD following his arrest in a dowry torture case but was re-inducted into the BJD in 2017.