Tara Bahinipati back in Congress, more leaders to quit BJP
By Pabitra Senapaty
Bhubaneswar, Dec 26: Desertion of leaders in Orissa BJP continued on Saturday with yet another senior leader and three-time legislator Tara Prasad Bahinipati quitting the party to join the Congress.
Mr Bahinipati, who resigned from Congress on the eve of last Assembly elections for denial of denial of ticket to contest from his Jeypore constituency, returned to his parent party along with his supporters.
Mr Bahinipati had resigned from the Congress blaming the former chief minister and senior Congress leader Giridhar Gamang for denying him party ticket to promote his (Mr Gamang’s) family members in the electoral politics.
He was welcomed to the party at a simple ceremony by Mr Gamang himself in the presence of Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee president K.P.Singh Deo. He described his joining Congress as “homecoming”.
Mr Bahinipati is the second senior leader to resign BJP in the past one week.
Earlier on December 22, the founder member of Orissa BJP and three-time Lok Sabha member M.A.Kharavela Swain severed his two-decade-old ties with the party in protest against “growing influence” of RSS in BJP.
His resignation overshadowed a major event like change in leadership of state party on the day as the development had dampened the spirit of party workers.
The cup of woes of the state party, which is yet to recover from the shock defeat in the last Assembly and LS elections in Orissa, is most likely to overflow further in coming days as three more high profile leaders of the party Bijoy Mahapatra, Braja Kishore Tripathy and Dilip Ray are reportedly preparing to bid farewell to it.
All the three leaders, who had joined BJP on the eve of last Assembly polls, are reportedly planning to float a third front in Orissa as an alternative to ruling Biju Janata Dal, sources close to them said.
“They find no future in BJP after being consciously sidelined by the party leadership. They had already dropped enough indication of leaving the party anytime when they did not turn up at the December 23 rally of the party organised to hail the new state president,” sources added