Former Union Minister Srikant Jena, who was expelled from the Congress in 2019, returned to the party on March 6, at a time when speculation is rife about an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the ruling Biju Janata Dal in Odisha. The State is due to hold its Assembly election simultaneously with the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Speaking at a press conference to announce Mr. Jena’s return to the Congress, the party’s Odisha in-charge Ajoy Kumar said that the BJP and BJD had been in a “live-in relationship”, adding that it was high time that the “marriage” between the two parties be made official.
“The BJP and BJD are together, so there is only one Opposition party here: the Congress. The whole Opposition space is ours,” Mr. Kumar said. He also claimed that several ticket claimants from both the BJP and BJD are in touch with the Congress, since the two parties are now making their alliance “official” and many of these aspirants will find themselves out of the race.
High poverty rate
Mr. Jena also asserted that the INDIA bloc would defeat the “unholy alliance” of the BJP and BJD. “The people of Odisha are angry with this unholy alliance. Today their real face stands exposed,” Mr. Jena said. He attacked the Odisha government for high poverty rates. “Four crore people out of the 50 crore people of Odisha are under the poverty line, with BJD in the State and BJP at the Centre,” Mr. Jena added.
Mr. Kumar also added that Odisha remains the poorest State in the country, with an average per capita income of ₹5,000 per month as opposed to the national average of ₹10,000. “We continue to walk away from the misery of Odisha. It has got 30 lakh people migrating to earn their livelihood,” he added.
Mr. Jena had been expelled from the Congress for openly challenging the leadership of the then-state Congress president Niranjan Patnaik. “I have been a Congressman since my student days. There were some misunderstandings which have now been clarified. Though I was away from the Congress, I continued to work for the party,” he said.
