Malkangiri, Mar  3: In another jolt to Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), senior BJD leader and former Malkangiri MLA Mukunda Sodi on Sunday quit the party on Sunday.

According to sources, Sodi sent his resignation letter to BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, citing negligence and disrespect within the party ranks.

Sodi is likely to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), sources said.

The tribal leader won as an MLA from Malkangiri constituency in 2009 on a BJD ticket. In 2014, he was denied the party ticket. In 2019, he again contested on a BJD ticket but he lost to the BJP candidate.  

In the last two weeks, three sitting BJD MLAs - Jaydev MLA Arabinda Dhali, Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi and Chilika MLA Prasanta Kumar Jagadev- joined the saffron party.

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