Dikhyaa Mohanty 
At the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headquarters in Delhi, prominent Shantali writer Damayanti Beshra, former Berhampur MP-actor Sidhant Mohapatra, and six-time Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab all joined. In the presence of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, National Vice President Baijayant Panda, State President Manmohan Samal, and BJP National General Secretary Vinod Tawde, they were welcomed into the saffron fold.
On March 22, Bhartruhari, the party’s steadfast representative from Cuttack since 1998, announced his resignation, citing “Asura Shakti’s” solid hold over the party and government. But his renomination was already marred by his supposed saffron leaning. In the next elections, he might run from the same constituency but on a BJP ticket. Santrupt Misra, a former HR director of the Aditya Birla Group who joined the party last month, is the BJD’s candidate for MP from Cuttack.
Sidhant joined the BJD in 2009 and ran a successful campaign for the Lok Sabha seat in Berhampur that year. In the general election of 2014, he was reelected with a margin of around 100,000 votes. However, in the 2019 elections, the BJD chose the seasoned politician and former union minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu to succeed the actor-turned-politician.
Beshra is one of the most famous Santali poets. For her contributions to Odia and Santali literature, she has won various accolades. In 2020, she received the Padma Shri award. Ahead of the elections, BJP politicians have begun defecting from the BJD. Popular Odia actor Arindam Roy, the brother-in-law of Pranab Prakash Das, the BJD organisational secretary, is one among them. On March 3, Jayadev MLA Arabinda Dhali, former MLA from Malkangiri Mukunda Sodi, and former bureaucrat Hrusikesh Panda all joined the saffron party, one day after leaving the BJD. The BJP was also accompanied by retired Air Marshal Dilip Kumar Patnaik, former joint secretary in the Rajya Sabha Ramakanta Das, and chairman of the BJD’s Digapahandi block Bipin Pradhan.
Two more sitting MLAs, Pradeep Panigrahi, Prashant Jagdev, who were earlier expelled from BJD, are now in saffron fold. Pradeep Panigrahi is also the BJP candidate for Berhampur Lok Sabha seat. Another BJD senior tribal leader and former minister Balabhadra Majhi quit the party, alleging neglect, and joined the Congress. On March 25, senior BJD leader and former Khalikote MLA Purna Chandra Sethy also resigned from the primary membership of the regional party.
