5-Time Odisha MLA Balabhadra Majhi Likely To Join Congress Today

Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha minister and five-time MLA Balabhadra Majhi, who resigned from BJD recently, is likely to join Congress on Wednesday.

Having been sidelined in BJD since 2019, Majhi sent his resignation to party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on January 8. Though he did not give any hint on his future course of action, it was being speculated that he will join the Congress.

The senior leader from Kalahandi was minister of state for SC and ST Development twice between 2002 and 2006. He was elected from Narla four times (1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004) and from Lanjigarh in 2014. He had targeted the BJD leadership for not involving him in any party programme after denying him a ticket in the 2019 elections.

Notably, the Congress has also been facilitating return of a host of senior leaders of the party who in the past jumped to other political outfits under different circumstances with an eye on the 2024 elections in Odisha. The party on Tuesday revoked the suspension of two senior leaders Cuttack-Barabati MLA Mohammed Moquim and former working president Chiranjeev Biswal, and also lifted the expulsion of former MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria.

Former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, 80, rejoined the Congress along with his wife and son, after nine years, on January 17.