Ex-BJD Leaders Praveen Bhanjdeo, Subash Nayak Join BJP

Bhawanipatna: Two former BJD leaders – sitting Morada MLA Praveen Kumar Bhanjdeo and Subash Chandra Nayak – formally joined the BJP in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during Vijay Sankalp Samavesh at Bhawanipatna on Tuesday.

Notably, Praveen had severed with BJD after the party leadership fielded former BJP state vice president Rajkishore Das, who recently joined the ruling party, from Morada assembly seat.

Also Read: Morada MLA Quits BJD

On the other hand, Nayak, the former Congress Kalahandi MP (1991) had resigned from the party in 2009 and unsuccessfully contested the Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat on BJD ticket against Congress’ Bhakta Charan Das the same year. In 2014 general elections, the BJD leadership fielded Arka Keshari Deo, who won the seat comfortably.

While Nayak was hopeful for a ticket from Kalahandi in 2019 elections, the party neither gave the ticket to him and nor to Deo and instead picked another party leader and Housing and Urban Development minister Pushpendra Singh Deo for the seat.