Former Odisha Women Panel Chief Jyoti Panigrahi & Her Husband Join BJP After Exiting BJD

Bhubaneswar: Almost a week after quitting BJD, former chairperson of State Commission for Women Jyoti Panigrahi and her husband Saroj Panigrahi joined the BJP at its party headquarters in Bhubaneswar on Monday.

They were inducted into the saffron fold along with BJD general secretary Saroj Sahu and president of Nuapada Biju Yuva Janata Dal Harish Chandra Panda, who resigned from the party last week, and their supporters in the presence of former BJP state unit president Samir Mohanty and Kalahandi MP Basanta Panda.

The husband-wife duo had snapped their decades old association with BJD after allegedly being sidelined in the party. Jyoti was senior vice president of Biju Mahila Janata Dal and observer of Sundargarh district when she tendered her resignation.

Sahu and Panda had quit BJD to protest against the renomination of sitting Nuapada MLA Rajendra Dholakia.