Denied Ticket In BJD, Soro MLA Parshuram Dhada Returns To BJP After 10 Years

Balasore: Three weeks after quitting BJD, sitting MLA from Soro Parshuram Dhada joined to BJP at its headquarters in Odisha capital on Friday.

He was inducted into the saffron fold along with his supporters in the presence of state BJP president Manmohan Samal, former president Samir Mohanty, party’s election co-in-charge Lata Usendi and Balasore MP candidate Pratap Sarangi.

“I am happy that senior party leaders gave me an opportunity to return to the party after 10 years. I will take up whatever responsibility is assigned to me,” Parshuram said during the joining-in ceremony.

After being elected as a councillor thrice from Soro, he contested from the Assembly seat under Balasore parliamentary constituency on a BJP ticket in 2009 but lost to Congress’ Surendra Prasad Pramanik by only 360 votes. He then joined BJD and won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019. The regional party, however, replaced him with Madhav Dhada for the upcoming polls in the state.

Expressing resentment, Parshuram resigned from the primary membership of BJD on April 3.

Though the BJP has already fielded Raju Das as its MLA candidate from Soro, it is yet to announce candidates from Nilagiri, Balasorre Sadar, Jaleswar and Basta under the LS seat. Is it to seen if the saffron party will switch candidates and field Parshuram from one of the four seats from where it is yet to announce its candidate.