BJD's Arjun Charan Sethi resigns after son denied ticket for Lok Sabha poll, joins BJP

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and sitting MP Arjun Charan Sethi resigned from the party on Saturday and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He quit the party after his son, Abhimanyu Sethi, was denied a ticket to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Odisha. Both the father-son duo has joined the BJP.

In his resignation letter to Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik, Sethi also quit as the party's district chief.

"I was elected six times as an MP and twice as MLA from the Janata Dal and the BJD. I never hesitated to take on challenges to help the BJD party grow in the district," wrote Sethi.

"In the last few months, I met you time to time and was also given assurance that my son would contest from Bhadrak due to my old age but unfortunately his name was deleted from the final candidate list," he said in the letter.

Sethi said he visited the Naveen Niwas in Bhubaneswar to meet the chief minister but was denied entry.

"The BJD and yourself have made it abundantly clear that I am unwanted in the party," he added.

The party has given a ticket to Manjulata Mandal, spouse of sitting Dhamnagar MLA Muktikanta Mandal, to contest from the Bhadrak parliamentary constituency.