Kulesika, a former Laxmipur MLA, lashes out at BJD, saying she was given Rs 1 lakh and a prestigious appointment

On Friday, former Laxmipur MLA Kailash Chandra Kulesika made a stunning allegation that the state BJD leadership had promised him Rs 1 lakh and the position of adviser of special development councils (SDCs) in exchange for his losing his ticket from the Assembly seat.

In front of prominent BJP officials, including state president Manmohan Samal, Kulesika left the BJD and joined the BJP. After the elections, the former lawmaker said he turned down the offer of employment and the money. “I turned down the offer of the job and the money out of self-respect. However, I’ll do my best to defeat the BJD in the next election,” he said.

According to the former MLA, BJD promised to run him for the Assembly seat. He said, “But the party abandoned me at the last minute and chose Prabhu Jani, the incumbent MLA.

Kulesika and other BJD officials from Koraput were reportedly summoned to Naveen Niwas on Wednesday, according to sources. “The people in the constituency will appropriately respond to BJD for their betrayal of me,” he said.

Kulesika ran for the Laxmipur seat in 2009 as an Independent, and in 2014, the Congress party won the seat. He had run for the same seat in the 2019 election on a Congress ticket, but Jani of the BJD narrowly beat him by 229 votes.

He later resigned from Congress in 2021 as a result of disagreements with the state leadership. BJD has not yet responded to the former MLA’s accusations. In addition to Kulesika, Pramod Khara, the head of the Laxmipur block BJD, joined the BJP along with hundreds of followers.