BHUBANESWAR: Former Laxmipur MLA Kailash Chandra Kulesika on Friday made a sensational claim that he was offered Rs 1 crore and the post of advisor of special development councils (SDCs) by the state BJD leadership after he was denied a ticket from the Assembly segment.
Kulesika quit BJD and joined BJP in the presence of senior BJP leaders including state president Manmohan Samal. The former legislator said he refused the money and declined to accept the post after elections. “Because of my self-respect, I denied the money and the post offered to me. But I will work to defeat the BJD in the ensuing election,” he added.
The former MLA said BJD had assured to field him from the Assembly seat. “But the party betrayed me at the last moment and renominated sitting MLA Prabhu Jani from the seat,” he added.
Sources said Kulesika was called to Naveen Niwas on Wednesday along with other BJD leaders from Koraput. “People of the constituency will give a fitting reply to BJD for betraying me,” he added.
Kulesika had contested as an Independent from Laxmipur seat in 2009 and had won the seat on a Congress ticket in 2014. He had contested the 2019 election on a Congress ticket from the same seat, but was defeated by BJD’s Jani by a slender margin of 229 votes.
Subsequently, he quit Congress following differences with the state leadership and joined BJD in 2021. BJD is yet to respond to allegations levelled by the former MLA. Apart from Kulesika, Laxmipur block BJD president Pramod Khara also joined BJP along with hundreds of supporters.