BHUBANESWAR: Several former Congress leaders who had quit the party to join BJD ahead of the 2024 elections are likely to return back following a call given by the newly-appointed president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Bhakta Charan Das in this regard.
Sources said Congress will start negotiations with leaders like Prafulla Majhi, Bhupinder Singh, Anshuman Mohanty, Prakash Behera, Surendra Singh Bhoi and Chiranjib Biswal once the party’s Sankalpa Padayatra from Bhubaneswar to Shree Jagannath Temple in Puri is over. The yatra will commence on Tuesday.
Majhi, a three-time Congress MLA from Talsara Assembly constituency in Sundargarh district, has openly indicated that he is likely to return to his parent party.
“I was given many assurances but betrayed in the BJD. I am frustrated in the BJD,” he told media persons.
Other leaders in the list too said they have been sidelined by the BJD after the elections. Some of them were denied ticket or defeated in the election. Sources in the Congress said they are waiting for the grand old party to initiate the process for their return.
Meanwhile addressing a press conference here, chairman of the Sankalpa Padayatra Committee and former MLA, Debashis Patnaik said before taking charge as the new OPCC president, Das will undertake the 60-km-long padayatra from Bhubaneswar to Puri. The yatra will reach Puri on February 20 after which Das will have a darshan of Lord Jagannath at Srimandir, he added.