The ruling BJD on Wednesday suffered a huge blow as four more of its councillors quit the party.
Councillors Dipak John Bage (Ward 9), Ramesh Mundari (Ward 1), Ashok Mahato (Ward 14) and P Lokeswari (Ward 12) along with their supporters came in a procession to the office of Dilip Ray at Civil Township where they joined BJP.
Earlier, BJD councillors Samar Priya Tanti and Basanti Badajena had joined BJP. With this, BJD’s strength in Municipal Council has been reduced to 15. Recently, BJD’s students’ wing president Anil Sagar and former Town unit president and former chairman of municipality Kalandi Badajena had joined BJP.
Later, addressing a public gathering, Dilip hoped to regain the 33-member Rourkela civic body.
Following the developments, BJP’s State executive member Raghu Bal demanded the BJD chairperson Rashmibala Mishra and vice-chairman RN Mishra to resign on moral ground.
Rourkela unit BJD president AC Mohanty said those who quit the party were selfish and claimed that BJD would retain the Rourkela municipal council in the ensuing election.