Naugaon block BJD president Sujit Mallick resigned from the post on Tuesday. He sent his resignation letter to BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and district BJD president Bishnu Das citing his concern over party’s failure occupying block chairperson post.
In his resignation letter, Mallick expressed disappointment and owned moral responsibility for the failure.
Sujit, a political science post graduate, represents Dalit community from Naugaon area. He was assigned the block BJD chief post following blessing of district president Das 10 months ago. His wife Elina Das a former Zilla Parishad member had contested this year Panchayat elections as candidate for the Samiti Member of Bansa Panchayat but she lost election to her Congress contestant by a slender margin. Sources added that she had proposed a candidate for the Naugaon block chairperson post.
The BJD captured two ZP seats besides 10 Sarpanchs and 8 Samiti Members in 16 Grama Panchayats spread over the Naugaon block under the leadership of Mallick. But trouble surfaced following selection of candidate for the block chairperson post when BJD was short of one Samiti Member to get a majority in the Panchayat Samiti.
Meanwhile, district president Das convened a meeting with party supported Samiti Members selecting a unanimous candidate for the block chairperson post soon after the election results were declared. After several rounds of deliberations, one Jagannath Das was proposed for the post but sources informed that Sujit had opposed the candidature of Jagannath.
Jagannath had worked for defeating Elina. Jagannath disappeared from Naugaon area and surprisingly on the election day he resigned from the BJD and contested as an independent candidate. He was elected after gaining support of 6 Congress, one BJP and one independent Samiti member.
Meanwhile, Bishnu Das clarified that Sujit’s resignation had not been accepted.