BHUBANESWAR: Former Kalahandi MP Arka Keshari Deo and his wife Malavika Devi joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party’s state headquarters here on Wednesday. Arka, son of Bikram Keshari Deo, a former BJP MP from Kalahandi, had joined Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in 2013 after the demise of his father. While his father was elected thrice to Lok Sabha as a BJP candidate in the 12th, 13th and 14th general elections, junior Deo was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from Kalahandi in 2014 on a BJD ticket.
BJD had fielded former minister Pushpendra Singhdeo in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls in which he lost to BJP candidate Basant Panda. Arka, however, quit BJD after he was denied a party ticket for the 2019 general elections. The Deo couple and their supporters joined the saffron party during the ‘Misrana Parba’ held at the state BJP office in the presence of state president Manmohan Samal, Kalahandi MP Basant Panda and a host of senior party leaders.
After joining the BJP, the couple told mediapersons they decided to join the saffron party as they were inspired by the welfare programmes and pro-people initiatives of the Narendra Modi government in the last nine years. Deo said he will fulfil the dreams of his father for Kalahandi.