Bhubaneswar: Expelled Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader from Koraput Raghuram Macha joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with a large number of supporters in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
Apart from Macha, over 100 prominent personalities having affiliation with BJD and Congress joined BJP. Former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Sambit Tripathy, erstwhile Kanika royal family member Durga Devi and former banker and IT expert Rajeswari Das were among those who joined the saffron party in the presence of state BJP president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders, sources said.
Macha, a former BJD district unit general secretary, and senior leader from Jeypore Himanshu Mohapatra, joined BJP along with many of his supporters in Odisha capital.
Macha went to the BJP state headquarters in a procession together with his supporters for their induction into the BJP ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
Stating that he and his supporters decided to join the saffron party after being inspired by the steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for rapid development in the country, Macha said they would work hard to ensure the victory of BJP in the state.
Claiming that BJP will retain power at the Centre, he said the saffron party would also would also fight the Assembly elections with full might to ensure the defeat of BJD.
At least a 100 BJD and Congress activists from five districts – Koraput, Keonjhar, Cuttack, Kendrapada and Jagatsinghpur — joined BJP at a special event.
Several Congress leaders from Jagatsinghpur district led by Hazi Liyat Alli and Hazi Abdul Rehman Khan shifted their allegiance to BJP. Similarly, many prominet personalities from Keonjhar district including Fakir Nayak, Prasanna Mahant and Akhaya Sahu also joined the saffron party, BJP sources said.
