Former Odisha MLA Sudarshan Jena Joins Congress After Resigning From BJD

Bhubaneswar: Three days after resigning from BJD, former Remuna MLA Sudarshan Jena on Monday joined Congress at its party headquarters in Bhubaneswar.

He was inducted into the grand old party in presence of Congress in-charge of Odisha Ajoy Kumar and OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak and other senior leaders.

Speaking to the media, Jena said that he decided to join the Congress to save democracy.

On March 8, he announced his resignation from primary membership of BJD while citing neglect and prevalence of bubudom within the party as the reasons behind his decision. “Bureaucrats are prevailing in the party. The ongoing alliance talks with power-hungry BJP, which is promoting perilous communal politics, also left me perplexed. Now, BJD will become Team B of BJP,” he had told a presser.

Jena had won the Remuna Assembly seat on BJD ticket in 2009. He, however, lost to BJP’s Gobinda Chandra Das in the 2014 elections and was denied a party ticket in 2019 when BJD’s Sudhanshu Sekhar Parida won the seat. His political career would have been at stake had he been denied a party ticket again in 2024 elections, sources said.

On the other hand, the BJD has been witnessing an exodus ahead of the 2024 elections. Earlier this month, Telkoi MLA Premananda Nayak and Jayadev MLA Arabinda Dhali joined the BJP after resigning from BJD, alleging neglect in the ruling dispensation. Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy and Chilka MLA Prasanta Jagdev, who were expelled from the BJD, also joined the saffron camp in the recent past. They were followed by senior BJD leader and former state minister Debasis Nayak.

Former Dhamnagar MLA Rajendra Kumar Das, who was also expelled from BJD in 2022,  joined the BJP on March 4.

The Congress, on the other hand, is making efforts to realign its forces ahead the elections by welcoming leaders, who either left the Congress or were been suspended for different reasons. Former Union Minister Srikant Jena, who was expelled from the Congress in 2019, returned to the party on March 6.

In January, former Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang rejoined the grand old party with his wife, Hema, and son, Shishir after hopping over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and then to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Five-time MLA and former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) minister Balabhadra Majhi also joined the Congress later that month.

Actor Manoj Mishra joined the Congress in the presence of senior party leaders here in February.