Bhubaneswar: After a rousing welcome at Bhubaneswar airport, Bhartruhari Mahtab, the BJP MP candidate from Cuttack on Sunday asserted that the BJD’s fort in Odisha is crumbling.

The six-time MP, who was the steady face of BJD representing the constituency since 1998, resigned from the regional party on March 22, expressing displeasure over its functioning, and joined the BJP on March 28. He will take on BJD’s Santrupt Misra, former HR head of Aditya Birla Group.

Speaking to mediapersons, Bhartruhari said that there is greater scope to work as well as challenges ahead. “I am confident of living up to the the faith that the central BJP leadership has reposed in me. Winds of change are blowing in favour of the Prime Ministere and it is evident from the enthusiasm among the people of Odisha. I will go to the people seeking votes on the basis of the agenda set by PM Modi, promoting nationalism and solidarity for the progress of a country, to fulfil his aspirations for Odisha,” he said.

The MP further said that BJD already has a sense of its dwindling fate and it will be proved by the people when the results of the upcoming elections are announced in June.

Bhartruhari added that the saffron party and the Lotus symbol are not new for him. “I have fought under both BJD and BJP symbols in 1998, 1999 and 2004 when the parties were in an alliance. The only difference now is that I have left one of these parties as it has lost its core identity,” he said.