BJD Loses Another Actor To BJP In Odisha As Akash Dasnayak Dons Saffron Cap After Arimdam & Sidhant

Bhubaneswar: A day after quitting the ruling BJD ahead of the elections in Odisha, actor-turned-politician Akash Dasnayak joined the BJP at its party headquarters here on Sunday.

The former Korei MLA was inducted into the saffron fold in the presence of state president Manmohan Samal, senior leader Samir Mohanty and some recent defectors, Pradeep Panigrahi, Sidhant Mohapatra and Arindam Ray.

Dasnayak was elected to the Odisha Assembly on a BJD ticket in 2014. He was also the chairperson of Mo College initiative of the state government. He cited ‘loss of self-respect’ in BJD as the reason behind his resignation from the ruling party.

The BJD has been witnessing an exodus of actors from party over the past couple of weeks. Besides Akash Dasnayak, Kendrapada MP Anubhav Mohanty parted ways with the Conch party on Saturday after being denied a ticket for the upcoming elections. He is likely to join the saffron party.

Sidhant Mohapatra, a two-time MP from Berhampur, joined the BJP on March 28. He had joined the BJD in 2009 and successfully contested from Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency in 2009. He was reelected in the 2014 general election by a margin of nearly 100,000 votes. The BJD, however, replaced the actor-turned-politician with Chandra Sekhar Sahu, a seasoned politician and the former union minister, in 2019 elections.

Arindam Ray, who is also the bother-in-law of BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, donned the saffron cap on March 15.