Former Union minister Srikant Jena gives Cong a Ghar Wapsi

The return to the Congress on Wednesday of Srikant Jena, a former federal minister and senior politician, gave the party a significant boost ahead of the elections. He attended the celebration in New Delhi with Ajoy Kumar, the in-charge of Odisha.

Four-time MP and three-time MLA Jena told reporters he was at his core a congressman. He clarified that there had been a misunderstanding and said that he had always worked for the Congress, even outside of the party.

Jena expressed his happiness at rejoining the party and acknowledged that the Congress has difficulties in Odisha since the BJP and BJD are heading towards a coalition. But now that these two parties have been exposed, Congress and the INDIA bloc will destroy them.

Jena is rumored to run for the Lok Sabha seat from Balasore. He did, however, state that the party will choose whether or not he runs in the next elections.

In January 2019, Jena’s remarks against political parties resulted to his expulsion from Congress. He had resigned from his roles inside the party and publicly questioned the leadership of Niranjan Patnaik, the president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) at the time. He served on the election and state executive committees.

As the head of the Janata Dal, Jena served as the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the cabinet of HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral during the United Front administration, which ran from June 29, 1996, to March 19, 1998. Later, in the second UPA administration headed by Manmohan Singh, he served as a Congress politician and was appointed minister of state (independent charge) for chemicals and fertilizers, statistics, and program execution.