"I cannot tolerate some of the very derogatory, humiliating and insulting behaviour of the exchange officials and I have put in my papers to DSE president on Monday," Bajaj told PTI.

DSE President Deepak Chaudhary was unavailable for comment as he was away in Chandigarh.

Top DSE officials, who insisted on anonymity, alleged that resignation of Bajaj was "pre-election politics" by members.

In his resignation letter, Bajaj has cited a number of instances where he felt the DSE officials targeted him for "no rhyme or reason."

The annual general meeting (AGM) of DSE, which was scheduled for September, was postponed to December. The AGM will witness election for the new members of the board.

With the resignation of Bajaj, the number of broker board members on the DSE board is reduced to seven. The seven members are DeepakChaudhary, (president), Nem Chand Jain (vice-president), Ashok Aggarwal, Vijay Gupta, N D Aggrawal, Vijay Bhushan and Nitin Kohli. One of the allegations of Bajaj pertains to switching off his trading terminal on the last day of settlement by DSE last month-end.

"Many squaring up orders were to be executed on the last day of settlements. By suspending my trading activities without any reason, I failed to square up outstanding positions," he said.

Bajaj, who has an individual membership card at DSE, is serving the second year of his term and has been on the board for a total of seven years. "I have been a DSE member for 21 years and there has never been any complaint against me since I assumed membership," he claims in his resignation letter.

Bajaj, who is serving second term running, is not eligible for contest as the rules require members to step down after serving two consecutive years. However, they could again contest after a two-year gap. "The current board was unable to stand-up to the rights ofthe members and have virtually become puppets at the hands of management," Bajaj alleged.