Bhubaneswar: Ahead of twin elections to State Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha, former minister and four-time MLA Debasis Nayak today joined the Congress within three months after joining the BJP.
Shri Nayak formally joined the Congress here in presence of Odisha Congress in-charge Ajoy Kumar at Congress Bhawan.
On February 25 this year, Shri Nayak had joined the BJP after resigning from the ruling BJD. As the BJP denied him ticket in this Assembly poll, he switched over to Congress now.
The Congress party is likely to nominate him from the Bari Assembly seat replacing the existing candidate, sources said.
Nayak is a four time MLA from Bari Assembly constituency in Jajpur district.
Debasis was first elected to the State Assembly from Bari seat in 2000 and was re-elected thrice from the same Assembly segment in 2004, 2009 and 2014.
The BJD denied him a party ticket in 2019. He also served as a Minister in Naveen Patnaik’s Cabinet during 2004 to 2008.