After quitting the BJD and joining the BJP, former MLA Debasis Nayak joined the Congress here on Saturday after being denied a ticket for the Bari Assembly constituency.
He was welcomed by Odisha Congress in-charge Ajoy Kumar and former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik.
“An outsider has taken over BJD and is making all attempts to sideline founder-members of the party. The sole intension of VK Pandian is to merge the BJD with the BJP. This is the last election which the BJD will be contesting as an independent party,” said Ajoy Kumar.
On Friday, Nayak announced that he would contest the upcoming election from Bari as an Independent candidate after the BJP fielded Umesh Chandra Jena from the seat.
“People of Bari are my strength. Party is not paramount for me. I will contest the poll to serve them,” Nayak had written.
He was hopeful of a ticket after joining the BJP on February 25. He has won from Bari for four consecutive terms from 2000 to 2014 on a BJD ticket. The BJP, however, picked Umesh, who had contested from the seat on a Congress ticket in 2019.
Nayak was given a ministerial berth when Naveen Patnaik became the Chief Minister in 2000. In 2008, he was dropped from the ministry following a controversy and was suspended three years later for questioning the BJD president’s style of functioning. In 2019, he did not get a BJD ticket.
