Bhubaneswar: Former chief minister of Odisha Giridhar Gamang and his son Shishir Gamang will be leaving for Hyderabad on a chartered flight at 11 am on Friday.
Looking for a fresh inning in Odisha politics, Gamang and his son are all set to join K Chandrashekar Rao-led (KCR) Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) later in the day. They resigned from the primary membership of the BJP on Wednesday. The duo had joined the saffron party in 2015 after quitting Congress.
Speaking to Odisha Bytes, Shishir earlier said that they would join BRS, which will fight all 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 elections and the senior Gamang may lead the party as Odisha unit president. “We will have to focus on both the state Assembly and Lok Sabha elections which are going to be held simultaneously. BRS will have to fight both,” he said.
He further said that Odisha may witness a new political coalition comprising all parties opposed to the BJD, BJP and Congress ahead of the 2024 general elections.
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The father-son duo met KCR last week. The junior Gamang said that KCR had big plans for Odisha and would emerge as an alternative force in the state. “While making a foray into the state’s political spectrum, it will definitely play a larger role,” Shishir said.
He said that they were inspired by Telangana’s development model, which had helped the state to achieve remarkable economic growth and increase its per capita income and cited it as the reason behind their decision to join the BRS.
The BSR will also be looking to cash in on the hold the father-son duo has over southern Odisha, which has a significant Telugu-speaking population, and 4 LS and 30 Assembly seats. The nine-time Lok Sabha MP has a base in almost all constituencies under the Koraput parliamentary segment.
The party hopes to bag at least five Lok Sabha seats including Koraput, Nabarangur, Aska, Berhampur and Kandhamal, and 35 assembly segments coming under these constituencies,
They, however, are not the only politicians from southern Odisha to join the KCR-led party. Former Koraput MP Jayaram Pangi will also be joining BRS in Hyderabad. Kailash Mukhi, who was Secretary of OPCC and hails from Kandhamal district, resigned from the Congress and joined BRS last week.
