Bhubaneswar: Former Odisha MP Pradeep Majhi and his family are allegedly facing ostracisation by their tribal community following his recent marriage out of caste.
The central committee of Bhatara Samaj during a meeting at Dhamnaguda on Friday issued a “diktat” imposing social boycott on him and his family for the next 12 years since inter-caste marriage is considered a breach of tradition. None from the tribal community will take part in any social functions of his family members during this period.
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On March 12, the 49-year-old BJD leader tied the knot with Sushree Sangita Sahu, a non-tribal from Kendrapada, at a private ceremony in Goa. He had also got his sister, Sanju Majhi, married to a Brahmin man.
Neither Pradeep Majhi nor any of his family members are yet to issue a statement on the matter.
The tribal leader was elected to the Lok Sabha representing the Nabarangpur constituency in Odisha on a Congress ticket in 2009. Before this, he served as the president of the Nabarangpur Zilla Parishad. He had a close association with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and previously held the position of president of the Youth Congress in Odisha before becoming the party’s executive president in the state. He switched to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Naveen Patnaik in 2021, and contested the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections from Nabarangpur but lost to BJP’s Balabhadra Majhi.
