BJD vice-president of Dhenkanal district advocate Deeptish Prasad Pattnaik has resigned from his post and even from the primary membership of the party protesting against the highhandedness of the Daitapatis of the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple.He has expressed his anguish that each ritual relating to the Nabakalebar of the deities starting from selection of Darus to the Bramha Parivartan till now has been vitiated.
Pattnaik has said that what has hurt him is the way the Government promoted the unruly Daitapatis ignoring the advices of the Gajapati Maharaja and the Shankaracharya of Govardhan Peeth. Suspension is not an exemplary punishment; it is just a damage control effort to overcome the situation, he has maintained.