Former Congress MLA Naba Das joins ruling BJD

BHUBANESHWAR: Former Working President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) and Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das formally joined the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) at Jharsuguda on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Eight local Congress leaders including the chairpersons of the Jharsuguda Zilla Parishad and five Panchayat Samities also joined BJD along with Das. Soon after joining BJD, Das resigned from the membership of the Assembly in a letter to Speaker Pradip Amat. Das has sought time from the Speaker to meet him and hand over the resignation letter.

Das had resigned from the primary membership of the Congress and the post of Working President of the party on January 16. In his resignation letter to President of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Rahul Gandhi, Das said he resigned from the Congress as people of the constituency wanted to him to do so for development of the area.

“The people and voters of my area want that I should contest the next 2019 election from BJD as they want our area should develop and I should join hands with Naveen Patnaik,” he said.

The former Jharsuguda MLA joined BJD a day ahead of the visit of Gandhi to Odisha on Friday. Gandhi is scheduled to address the rally and meet intellectuals, editors of newspapers and news channels and party functionaries at Bhubaneswar during his day-long visit.