BHUBANESWAR, January 29: The Janata Dal, which is yet to recover from the aftermath of the recent split in its Orissa unit, suffered another jolt today with the party's legislative wing leader, Narasimha Mishra, resigning from the post.A member of the party's Political Affairs Committee, Mishra had succeeded party president Ashok Das as leader of the Janata Dal legislature party after a majority of party members in the Legislative Assembly broke away to form a regional outfit, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), and entered into an electoral alliance with its arch rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Mishra sent in his resignation letter to the party chief protesting against the recent outburst of Union Minister Srikanta Jena against the erstwhile Biju Patnaik government.
Jena, in a letter to BJD president Naveen Patnaik, had raked up several controversial issues pertaining to the erstwhile Dal regime while questioning the justification of several decisions of the then government. Mishra, the Law Minister in theBiju Patnaik-led government, said he had resigned on moral grounds.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.