The BJD on Tuesday requested Lok Sabha Speaker to accept the resignation of MP Baijayant Panda forthwith as he ceases to be a MP ‘as per provisions of the Constitution and the law’.

The move to write to the Lok Sabha Speaker is said to have been prompted by speculations in certain circles that Panda was asked by Ms Sumitra Mahajan to reconsider the decision, a fact which Baijayant Panda had himself made public after meeting her.

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Many her wondered why Panda had made a one-to-one courtesy call conversation public. Panda had earlier sent in resignation from the Lok Sabha to the Speaker and had only recently met her.

The high flying MP had also resigned from the BJD and in a three page rather ‘sentimental ‘letter to BJD president Naveen Patnaik expressed his disillusionment over the ignominable depths to which the party had slipped over the last three to four years.

The BJD Lok Sabha party leader Mr Bhatruhari Mahatab in a letter communication to the Speaker said Baijayant Panda who was elected to Kendrapara Lok Sabha, Constituency of Odisha in the 2014 general elections on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) symbol and party ticket has voluntarily given up his primary membership of the BJD and has reportedly sent his resignation as Lok Sabha MP to your office.

Since he has voluntarily resigned from the BJD, he cannot continue as an M.P. as per the terms of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution of India pertaining to anti-defection provisions.

“In law he stands disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP but now that he has resigned of his own accord, the proceedings for his disqualification under the Tenth Schedule need not be initiated by our party” stated Mahatab in the party letter to the Speaker.

He also mentions that Panda had earlier been suspended from the party for anti-party activities and the suspension had been communicated to the office of the Speaker.

Meanwhile, Panda whose efforts to join the BJP are well known has been calling on senior BJP leaders here. On Monday he even held ‘a la Modi -Chai pe charcha’ at Bhubaneswar by spending time at a roadside tea shop. The delay in his induction to the BJP is the talk of the town.