New Delhi: Cuttack's six-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab has crossed over to the BJP from Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal. The 67-year-old leader, who joined the party today in presence of key state leaders, is likely to be fielded for the Lok Sabha election, sources said.
In the 2019 general election, Mr Mahtab had retained the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat, defeating his nearest rival, the BJP's Prakash Mishra, with a huge margin of votes.
Mr Mahtab was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1998 from Cuttack. He was re-elected in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. He retained the seat for BJD in 2019. He was awarded the "Sansad Ratna" for four consecutive years from 2017 to 2020 for his outstanding performance in parliament debates.
While quitting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's BJD a few weeks ago, Mr Mahtab had alleged that the party has deviated from its fight against corruption and welfare policies.
Over the last months a number of BJD leaders have crossed over the BJP. Among those who resigned was a close relative of BJD organising secretary PP Das and popular Odia actor Arindam Roy.
Senior tribal leader and former minister Balabhadra Majhi, who joined the Congress, alleged that he was neglected and sidelined for the last five years.
Odisha has 21 parliamentary constituencies. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) got the maximum number of seats, followed by the BJP and the Congress. The BJD won 12 seats, the BJP finished a close second with 8 seats and the Congress bagged just one.
In the last assembly election, held simultaneously with the general election in 2019, the BJD had won 113 of the 147 seats. The BJP came a distant second with 23 seats, followed by the Congress with 9. The CPM won one seat and another was won by an Independent.
This year, the BJP-BJD talks for an alliance – started after more than a decade – fell through because the two parties failed to come to an understanding on seat sharing.
(With PTI)