Six-time Odisha MP joins BJP days after quitting Naveen Patnaik’s party

Six-time MP from Cuttack Bhartruhari Mahtab joined the BJP days after quitting the ruling Biju Janata Dal. Sources said the 67-year-old leader, who joined the BJP in the presence of key state leaders, is likely to contest the Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2019 general elections, Mr. Mahtab retained his Cuttack Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest rival Prakash Mishra of the Bharatiya Janata Party by a huge vote margin.

Mr. Mahtab was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Cuttack in 1998. He was re-elected to the Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. He retained the BJD seat in 2019. For his outstanding performance in Parliament, he was awarded the ‘Sansad Ratna’ debate for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020.

A few weeks ago, when he quit the BJD led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Mahtab had alleged that the party had deviated from anti-corruption and welfare policies.

Congress MP Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab and other prominent personalities joined the Bharatiya Janata Party at the party headquarters in New Delhi. https://t.co/MAoOgNn64e

—Bharatiya Janata Party (@BJP4India) March 28, 2024

Over the past few months, some BJP leaders have developed differences with the BJP. Among those who resigned were BJD organizing secretary PP Das and a close relative of popular Odia actor Arindam Roy.

Senior tribal leader and former minister Balabhadra Majhi, who has joined the Congress party, claims that he has been ignored and marginalized in the past five years.

Odisha has 21 assembly constituencies. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJD) secured the maximum number of seats, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress. The BJD won 12 seats, followed by the BJP with 8 seats and the Congress with just one seat.

In the last assembly elections, held concurrently with the 2019 general elections, the BJD won 113 out of 147 seats. The BJP is in second place with 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9 seats. The CPM won one seat and the other seat was won by the Independent Party.

This year, alliance talks with the RSS that began after more than a decade ended in failure as the two parties failed to agree on seat-sharing.

(With PTI)