Odisha: Setback to Congress as former minister quits party, joins BJP

BHUBANESWAR: A day after quitting the Congress on Thursday, former minister Surendra Singh Bhoi on Friday joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ahead of the general elections 2024.

Bhoi was inducted into the BJD in the presence of the party’s senior leaders, including Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra, and water resources minister Tukuni Sahu at Sankha Bhawan in Bhubaneswar.

Former Odisha minister Surendra Singh Bhoi quits Congress

Along with Bhoi, his supporters also joined the BJD at the event.

The former Titlagarh MLA resigned from the Congress on Thursday. He ended his association with Congress of more than three decades citing ‘personal’ reasons.

In another development, former Salipur MLA and BJP Cuttack district president Prakash Chandra Behera on Friday resigned from the party. Behera had sent a letter in this regard to BJP state president Manmohan Samal on Thursday.

“I have always tried to do justice to my position and the team has tried to achieve milestones. But I could not give satisfactory results,” he wrote in the resignation letter.

Behera had successfully contested the 2014 Assembly polls from Salipur constituency on Congress ticket. In 2019, he left Congress and joined the BJP. He also contested from the very constituency that year on BJP ticket but lost to BJD’s Prashant Behera.

Giving yet another blow to the BJP, Nilagiri MLA Sukanta Panigrahi resigned from the party. He is likely to join the BJD.