Former MP Archana Nayak on Monday quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and sent her resignation letter to the party’s State president KV Singh Deo, who is on a tour of southern Odisha.
Nayak, who was elected to the lok Sabha in 2004 from the Kendrapada constituency on a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ticket, had joined the BJP in 2009 and unsuccessfully contested in the same year’s election to Parliament from the Bhubaneswar seat.
Nayak said she was not happy over the organisational affairs and programmes of the BJP in the State. As the party’s base is still weak in the coastal areas, she did not think that her continuing in the organisation would enable her to do politics in an effective manner.
At the same time, she said she was “never mentally comfortable” in the saffron party. She said she would now work independently for her old constituency of Kendrapada before deciding which other party to join.
Nayak was originally in the Congress and contested from the Patkura Assembly seat on the party ticket before 2004 without success.