The BJP has faced a major jolt in Odisha with two of its stalwarts, MLA and former Union minister Dilip Ray and former minister Bijay Mahapatra, deciding to quit the party by the end of November.

According to sources, both are frustrated after failing to the draw attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah to many of their unfulfilled promises and the “sad state of affairs in the state unit of the party”.

It is learnt that Ray will resign as MLA on 30 November following which he and Mahapatra will tender their resignations from the party membership.

The sources said the two members of the BJP national executive had already written to PM Modi and Shah.

They are learnt to have informed the top two leaders of the party that they can no longer compromise with their self-esteem as well as the interest of people in their respective constituencies.

For over three years, their repeated attempts and talks with Modi and Shah have not yielded any result. No senior leader, not even national general secretary in charge of Odisha Arun Singh, had bothered to lend an ear to them.

During informal talks at airport lounges or aboard flights, Arun Singh had promised to discuss matters but at the same time expressed “helplessness” given the “one-man show” (implicit reference to Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan in the party), said the sources close to Ray and Mahapatra.

Pradhan’s over-dominance has led to marginalisation of several leaders, most of whom are sulking but silent since he enjoyed Shah’s backing, said the sources, adding “a sizable section of the RSS in Odisha” had also given this feedback.

“Woh party chalata hay” (he runs the party) is the stock reply of the national leaders, said a RSS functionary.

Several state BJP leaders such as Pratap Sarangi, Manmohan Samal, Suresh Pujari, Subash Chouhan, Nayan Mohanty and many more are reportedly sulking.

To Pradhan’s credit, he has been working tirelessly over the last four years and has tried to create a new set of followers. He has inducted quite a few people from other parties.

Ray and Mahapatra, however, have been a cut above all this. They maintained a dignified distance from the bickering in accordance with their stature in Odisha politics over several decades.

Ray had vented his angst in public repeatedly pointing out the two major promises made by PM Modi – the second bridge over Brahmani river and the hospital project in Rourkela in 2014-15 – had remained unfulfilled despite several meetings with the PM, Union minister Nitin Gadkari and others.

Mahapatra, a more politically strong leader of the coastal belt, has also been critical of the failure on the employment front, though jobs had been promised when the PM inaugurated the oil refinery at Paradip.

He has also taken a public position on the Mahanadi water dispute and other issues concerning the state, much to the dislike of the state unit leaders. Eventually, it was the state leaders who had, due to the circumstances, veered round to his stand. Even the Puri Jagannath Temple related issue was raised by Mahapatra during the Nabakelabara festival but the party did not back him , though after two years it try to rake up the controversy.

Mahapatra was also peeved over the “soft peddling” of the chit-fund probe, the burial of the mega mining scam etc.

He had organised Amit Shah’s first visit and public meeting at Bhubaneswar to raise these issues. Notes were sent for the speech etc, but five minutes before getting on stage Pradhan was seen having a word with Shah, and the latter did not utter a word against the BJD or CM Naveen Patnaik. This was in 2015.

The speculation was that credit would have gone to Mahapatra and it was too early to attack Naveen Patnaik. The BJP wanted to defer the attack till closer to the 2019 general elections as it wanted the BJD’s support on various issues in Parliament.