Given Ticket & Then Dropped, Another Congress Leader Quits Party In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: A day after being replaced as Sambalpur MP candidate, Dulal Chandra Pradhan on Monday resigned from the primary membership of Congress in Odisha.

‘…I can never compromise on Sambalpur’s future and the agenda for the welfare of Sambalpur,” he wrote in his resignation letter to OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak.

Making a change to its previously released list of LS candidates, Congress on Sunday replaced Dulal with former MP Nagendra Pradhan in Sambalpur. Pradhan, a former minister in the Naveen Patnaik government, had won the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat in 2014 on a BJD ticket. He joined the Congress after resigning from the regional party on April 25.

The grand old party had earlier revoked the ticket of Mohan Hembram from Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat and fielded Binod Bihar Nayak in his place.

On April 20, Prabodh Tirkey, former India hockey captain, resigned from Congress after being replaced in Talasara Assembly seat, stating that the party had insulted him by withdrawing his candidature without informing him of the reason behind it. He formally joined the BJP on Sunday.

The grand old party had replaced Tirkey with Debendra Bhitaria in the seat in the Sundargarh district.

On April 17, the Congress dropped its candidate, Shreedhar Dev, from Digapahandi assembly segment a day after he filed his nomination, and fielded Saka Sujit Kumar in his place. The party had also replaced candidates in Baliguda, Kabisuryanagar, Kantamal, and Jaydev before the start of filing of nomination.

On April 28, the Congress also made changes in two assembly seats – Baripada and Khandapada. It nominated Pramod Hembram in place of Badal Hembram from Baripada seat while Baijayantimala Mohanty has replaced Manoj Pradhan in Khandapada.