**Bhubaneswar:** Four months after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), veteran politician Bijoy Mohapatra rejoined the saffron party today, after several negotiations with his supporters and other BJP leaders.
Addressing the media, he said, “I want ‘Parivartan’ to come in Odisha. The Central Election Committee will decide whether I will contest elections and from which constituency I will be fielded.”
BJP National Vice-President Baijayant Panda and Odisha party In-charge Arun Singh visited the residence of the senior leader on Thursday, following which he rejoined the saffron party and is likely to be a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme at Jeypore on Friday.
On November 30, in his resignation letter sent to Amit Shah, Mohapatra had stated, “Be it the Mahanadi water issue, or the unfulfilled promises of a second bridge over river Brahmani; the super speciality hospital at Rourkela or the dreams of lakhs of jobs for Odia youth which we sold at Paradip during the inauguration of the Oil Refinery – nothing, absolutely nothing materialized. In short, people of Odisha are disillusioned. Several leaders in the party been shared our concerns, but remain silent fearing denial of tickets.”
Notably, Bijoy Mohapatra is a senior political leader and former minister of Odisha and has been instrumental in making BJP’s presence felt in a strategic coastal district like Kendrapara as Bijoy wields clout in his home turf as well as coastal Odisha. Mohapatra was also the national executive member of BJP before resigning. However, due to very poor organisational strength of BJP in coastal Odisha, Bijoy had lost the Assembly elections in 2009 and 2014, contesting from the Patakura and Mahakalapada Assembly seats respectively.
