Sidelined In BJD, Former Odisha Minister Balabhadra Majhi Joins Congress

Bhawanipatna: Almost two weeks after quitting BJD, former minister and five-time MLA Balabhadra Majhi joined the Congress in the presence of party’s Odisha in-Charge Dr Ajoy Kumar in Bhawanipatna on Wednesday.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattanayak, and other senior leaders of the party were also present.

Majhi had sent his resignation to BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on January 8, barely a few months before the simultaneous Lok Sabha and state elections. The tribal leader had then said that he felt neglected by the party since 2019, when the party denied him a ticket to contest again. He had targeted the BJD leadership for not involving him in any party programme thereafter.

He last won from Lanjigarh assembly constituency in tribal-dominated Kalahandi district in 2014 elections. However, the BJD fielded the incumbent MLA Pradip Kumar Dishari from the constituency in 2019.

Majhi was also elected from Narla four times (1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004). He was the minister of the ST & SC Development & Minorities and Backward Classes between 2002 and 2006.

Notably, the Congress has also been facilitating return of a host of senior leaders of the party who in the past jumped to other political outfits under different circumstances with an eye on the 2024 elections in Odisha. The party on Tuesday revoked the suspension of two senior leaders Cuttack-Barabati MLA Mohammed Moquim and former working president Chiranjeev Biswal, and also lifted the expulsion of former MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria.

Former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, 80, rejoined the Congress along with his wife and son, after nine years, on January 17.