Jharsuguda MLA, formally joined BJD today in the presence of the party head and Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik in a general meeting in Amallipalli in Jharsuguda. The politically hyped event was as it was being talked about. Naba Kishore Das had quit Congress on January 16 to go to BJD. Jharsuguda Zilla Parishad president and five of his fellow Parishad members also shifted their allegiance to the ruling party along with their MLA.
In the last few days, the political happenings in Odisha, are marked by quite a many disturbances in the parties. There were expulsions of a former Union Minister Srikant Jena and former MLA Krushna Chandra Sagaria from the Congress. Two sitting MLAs Nabakishore Das and Jogesh Singh quit the grand old party. In BJP, two political stalwarts -Bijay Mohapatra and Dilip Ray did not feel comfortable, and they left the party in December. Two months back Damodar Rout was expelled from BJD, and before that Naveen Patnaik had axed Baijayant panda. Both the leaders were of very high stature in BJD and in the state politics
And on Monday, Kharavela Swain and Braja Kishore Tripathy came together to take on ruling BJD in the electoral fight in Odisha in April. With this Utkal Bharat of Kharavela Swain and Samata Kranti Dal of Braja Kishore Tripathy became one outfit. They named it Odisha Ganatantrik Samukhya.
Alliance of the two regional parties is a significant development outside the field of three major political forces- BJD, BJP, and Congress. There have been endeavors at several centers to forge some alliance to stand as a contender in the fray. But it did not take shape.
The front will field candidates in all the 147 assembly constituencies in Odisha, said Kharavela Swain and Braja Kishore Tripathy. They invited all those who are against the BJD government to come together and remove them from power. Mr. Swain said, “We will form the next government by winning maximum seats in the elections.”
Kharavela Swain with three wins of parliamentary election from Balasore in1998, 1999 and 2004 is one of the noted political figures in Odisha so is Braja Kishore Tripathy. He was a Union Minister in the NDA government of 1999-2004 and had represented Puri parliamentary constituency after winning elections in 1991, 1998, 1999 and 2004.
Mr. Swain had the achievements when he was in BJP, and Mr. Tripathy had those when he was in Janata Dal in 1991 and then in BJD. But, the political parties they established after their separation from their parent parties have earned very little voter base.
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