Baijayant Jay Panda who quit the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) last year, today joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Jay Panda joined the BJP in presence of Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Dharmendra Pradhan.
Mr. Panda tweeted saying he “admired Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah’s leadership” and after deep introspection he decided to join the BJP on the “auspicious Mahashivratri”.
Nine months of introspection & widespread consultations w/colleagues & public.
Grateful for support recd from all over.
On auspicious #MahaShivratri I've decided to join @BJP4India & work under the leadership of @narendramodi Ji to serve Odisha & India to the best of my ability🙏— Baijayant Jay Panda (@PandaJay) March 4, 2019
Jay Panda was suspended from the BJD for anti-party activities, he subsequently resigned. He claimed the charges were “false” and “baseless”.
Jay was member of parliament for close to 20 years. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha between 2000-2009 and Lok Sabha between 2009 and 2018.
The switch is expected to hurt the fortunes of the BJD Chief and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Patnaik will be looking for a record fifth term as Chief Minister in the state of Odisha this year.