Bhubaneswar Kalita, the Congress chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, was due to switch to the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi on Friday evening, days after he quit in protest against his party’s position on scrapping Article 370.

Why he resigned

Kalita gave up his Rajya Sabha membership on Monday, objecting to the Congress stand against ending Article 370 and splitting Jammu and Kashmir. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu told the House he had accepted the resignation.

In a letter, Kalita said the party had asked him to issue a whip, but that this went “against the mood of the nation”. He wrote that the party was headed towards destruction and that he could not contribute to it.

His exit came before the crucial vote on the resolution ending Article 370 and on a bill to divide the state into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Other resignations

Samajwadi Party member Sanjay Seth from Uttar Pradesh quit the Upper House as well, and his resignation was also accepted.

Kalita, a Rajya Sabha member from Assam, was months away from the end of his term, which was due to end on April 9, 2020. He was the second Congress Rajya Sabha member to resign in recent times, after Sanjay Sinh, a member of the former Amethi royal family who had joined the BJP.

See also: Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress.

Originally published on 9 August 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

Share on Facebook

Tweet

Follow us