Bhubaneswar: May 03: Mangal Sahu, the BJP’s Jharsuguda District President, quit the party and joined the Biju Janata Dal on Wednesday, one week before the Jharsuguda Byelection.
At Sankha Bhawan, BJD Rajya Sabha member Manas Mangaraj and other leaders welcomed Sahu into the regional party.
Sources indicate that Sahu later met with BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik at his residence.
Speaking to Media, Sahu said, “I worked diligently to strengthen the BJP organization in the district of Jharsuguda. It pained me when some BJP leaders engaged in cheap politics by giving up the ideology and principles of the party. Thus, I left the BJP and joined the BJD’.
The BJP has nominated Tankadhar Tripathy for the by-election scheduled for May 10.Tripathy will compete against Dipali Das of the BJD and Tarun Pandey of the Congress.
