Odisha: Former BJD MLA joins BJP

BARELY TWO months after he was suspended from the BJD for alleged anti-party activities, former Balasore MLA Jiban Pradip Dash on Thursday joined the BJP in the presence of Union minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi.

Dash, a three-time MLA, was suspended in November last year by Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik following the by-elections for the Balasore Sadar seat. A day after he was suspended, he resigned from primary membership of the party, stating that his suspension was based on unreasonable grounds.

While the rift between him and former MP Rabindra Jena, BJD’s Balasore district unit president, is well known, it was alleged that Dash did not campaign for the party candidate as he was not given the ticket.

“Joining the BJP is like homecoming for me. I started my political career with the BJP and now I am back with the party without any precondition. Both the parties function differently and I wanted to be back to the BJP for a long time now. We will work towards strengthening and implementing the party agenda in the constituency,” Dash told The Indian Express.

Dash was elected from Balasore Sadar Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2000. Later, he joined the ruling BJD and won the seat twice – in 2009 and 2014. He lost the 2019 Assembly election to BJP’s Madan Mohan Dutta, whose death necessitated had the bypoll.