Former Union minister Srikant Jena returns to Congress

PTI, Mar 6, 2024, 7:52 PM IST

Srikant Jena (Credit: X @INCIndia / video screengrab)

New Delhi: Former Union minister Srikant Jena returned to the Congress on Wednesday and asserted that the INDIA bloc will defeat the BJP-BJD’s ”unholy alliance” in Odisha.

Jena had been expelled by the Congress in 2019 for alleged anti-party activities.

At a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, the party’s in-charge of Odisha Ajoy Kumar welcomed Jena into the party.

”There were some misunderstandings which have now been clarified. I met Congress President (Mallikarjun Kharge), KC Venugopal. We had a long chat with Ajoy ji and it has been sorted out. I have been working in favour of the Congress even though I have been away,” he said.

I’m confident that the Congress and INDIA bloc will fight the BJP-BJD and emerge victorious in Odisha.

SC, ST, and OBC constitute 94% of the population in Odisha, and they don’t have a say in the whole hierarchy of the political system. Shri @RahulGandhi‘s #BharatJodoNyayYatra… pic.twitter.com/fEmdoWLzHc

— Congress (@INCIndia) March 6, 2024

”PM Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, their parties (BJP and the BJD), are uniting themselves in an open alliance. They had been in an open alliance, and now also they are joining hands,” he said.

The Congress and INDIA bloc will face BJP-BJD and defeat them, he asserted.

”People of Odisha are angry with this unholy alliance. Their real face has been exposed,” he said.

Kumar said that the BJP and BJD had been in a ”live-in” relationship and it is high time that the ”marriage” between the two parties be made official.