Former Mayurbhanj MP Laxman Tudu Joins JMM

Bhubaneswar: A day after resigning from Biju Janata Dal (BJD), former Mayurbhanj MP Laxman Tudu joined the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Sunday.

This was announced during the JMM’s Central Committee meeting held at Ranchi this afternoon. Once the tribal face of BJD in Mayurbhanj, he joined the JMM in the presence of president Shibu Soren, leader of opposition in Jharkhand assembly Hemant Soren and other senior leaders.

On Saturday, resigned had informed about his resignation in a letter to the BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik without mentioning the reason.

“As I had profound respect for Biju Patnaik, I used to address him as my father and Naveen as my brother. The most disturbing trend which I found later is that the number of unknown and insignificant leaders in the BJD has substantially gone up. Those who had no entity in the party, have now emerged as the prime leaders who have been ignoring the senior leaders with utter contempt and disdain. I had brought this matter to the notice of the BJD president. But he did not pay any heed to my concern,” Tudu told mediapersons later.

It may be mentioned that Tudu was denied a party ticket in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2014 as the party leadership preferred the sitting MLA Ramchandra Hansda.

Tudu had won the Lok Sabha polls from Mayurbhanj in 2009 on a BJD ticket.