Jolt To BJD, Jayadev MLA Arabinda Dhali & Ex-Malkangiri MLA Mukunda Sodi Join BJP
Key Points
In a major jolt to Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), sitting MLA of Jayadev constituency Arabinda Dhali, former MLA of Malkangiri Mukunda Sodi and several other leaders joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
Bhubaneswar, Mar 3: In a major jolt to Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), sitting MLA of Jayadev constituency Arabinda Dhali, former MLA of Malkangiri Mukunda Sodi and several other leaders joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) here on Sunday.
Five-time MLA Dhali and Ex-MLA Sodi joined the saffron party at a special function held at the BJP's State headquarters here this afternoon in the presence of party's state president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders.
Dhali was first elected to the Assembly from the Malkangiri seat in a by-election in 1992 on a BJP ticket. He retained the seat for two consecutive terms. He also served as the Transport Minister during the BJD-BJP alliance government. Later, Dhali joined the BJD, and was elected to the Assembly from Jayadev in 2009. He also won the 2019 election from the seat.
📱 Get Argus News App
✨On the other hand, Sodi 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.
Last month, two sitting BJD MLAs Pradeep Panigrahi and Prashant Jagdev also joined the BJP. Former State Minister Debasis Nayak of the BJD also switched sides recently.
Read More Odisha News