Odisha: Ahead of rural polls, another leader from Congress' Koraput bastion joins BJD

BHUBANESWAR: Infighting seems to have cost the Congress dear in Koraput district, a traditional bastion of the Grand Old Party, with former MLA Kailash Chandra Kulesika on Wednesday joining the BJD with the panchayat polls few months away.
Kulesika, who represented the Laxmipur segment in the state assembly from 2014 to 2019, is the second former Congress legislator from the tribal-dominated district to have switched over to the ruling camp in the past one month.On September 15, former Congress Kotpad MLA Chandrasekhar Majhi joined the BJD.
A popular tribal face of Congress, Kulesika lost the 2019 assembly poll from Laxmipur by a thin margin of only 229 votes.
He joined the ruling party here along with hundreds of his supporters and local elected leaders in the presence of BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, textiles and handlooms minister Padmini Dian, Laxmipur MLA Prabhu Jani and several senior leaders.
Briefing reporters, the former Laxmipur MLA said he worked for the BJD during his initial days in politics and always had a weakness for the regional party.
"It's like a homecoming for me. The development initiatives of the state government led by chief minister Naveen Patnaik have inspired me to join BJD and to work for welfare of the people. I will accept whatever responsibility will be given to me by the party," said Kulesika.
Kulesika, who had resigned from Congress earlier, said several other senior Congress leaders from the undivided Koraput district would jump to the BJD camp in the next a few months.
Recently, the former Laxmipur MLA had a face-off with senior Congress leader and Jeypore MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati and his wife Meenakshi Bahinipati, the president of Koraput district congress committee.
"I don't want to comment anything about them (Bahinipati couple)," said Kulesika when asked whether dispute with them is the reason behind his departure from Congress.
Responding to Kulesika's joining BJD, the Jeypore MLA said it will have no impact on Congress in Koraput as Kulesika was not enjoying the support of the people at the grassroots.