Bhubaneswar: Suspended BJD MP from Kendrapara Baijayant "Jay" Panda on Monday resigned from party's primary membership. He is also likely to step down as MP after the completion of the last rites of his father, who passed away on May 22.

What seems to have provoked Panda to resign is that neither Naveen nor any other BJD member turned up to pay their respects to his departed father Bansidhar Panda, the doyen of industry in Odisha.

In a letter to BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, the four-time MP said: "It is with deep anguish, hurt and sorrow that I have decided to quit the kind of politics into which our BJD has descended."

Panda, 54, had represented the BJD twice in the Rajya Sabha (2000-2009) and twice in the Lok Sabha. He was suspended from the BJD in January for "anti-party activity".

In his three-page letter, Panda said: "Although things have been going from bad to worse for the past four years, it has plumbed the absolute depths of inhumanity when neither you nor anyone from the BJD turned up to pay their last respects to my father Dr Bansidhar Panda, who as everyone knows was a very close friend, supporter and associate of Biju uncle for many decades." Panda alleged that BJD leaders were restrained from coming to pay their last respects to his father.

"I have stoically borne many humiliations over the past four years, but this is the last straw, is now beyond my self-respect to continue to be associated with the party in an atmosphere as mean minded as this," he wrote to Naveen.

On the other hand, BJD vice-president Debi Mishra said: "The party will not react at this moment as the 11-day rituals are on."

Panda made it clear in the letter that he would convey his decision formally to the Lok Sabha Speaker to accept his resignation from the Parliament "upon completion of the religious obligations of bereavement".

Political pundits say with the general elections less than a year away, the vacancy might lead to a bypoll that would have to be held within six months. Panda has good equations with the top BJP leadership and may join the party to take on the BJD in the politically sensitive Kendrapara district.