Odisha MLA Soumya suggests she would join the BJP and run for the assembly seat in Ghasipura

Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the MLA for Khandapada, suggested on Tuesday that he would run for office on a BJP ticket from the Ghasipura Assembly seat in the Keonjhar district after keeping a low profile for more than seven months after his expulsion from the BJD.

 

Following his prayers at the Maa Tarini temple, Patnaik spoke with media at Ghatagaon and said that offers had come from several political parties, including the BJP. According to him, Manmohan Samal, the president of the state unit, made the offer on behalf of the saffron party.

Various political and non-political parties from the Ghatagaon and Ghasipura blocks have made demands to accept the BJP’s offer and assume responsibility for this Assembly seat. I’ve come here to ask Maa Tarini for her approval and direction as I plan my next move. I have delegated decision-making on my candidacies to the BJP. In a day or two, everything will become evident,” he said.

“I was elected on a BJD ticket from the seat with the highest margin but the party has expelled me for anti-people activities,” Patnaik said when asked whether there was any possibility he would accept the BJD’s invitation to run again from Khandapada. I have not been able to ascertain why the party has not declared a candidate for the position.

In response to a question regarding his prospects of winning Ghasipura, the current home of BJD MLA Badri Narayan Patra, who has won the seat five times (two of those victories coming from the former Ramanchadrapur seat, which changed its name to Ghasipura following delimitation in 2008), Patnaik stated, “Patra had tasted victory five times while I had the experience losing many elections.” I’m not afraid of losing again.

He went on to say that Patra has been used both financial and physical might to win elections. “May that happen this time, as people are tired of his family’s hooliganism,” Patnaik said. “A time will come when a fort falls.”

He said that several Congress leaders in the constituency had thrown their support behind him even after discovering that he would get a nomination from the BJP. Niranjan Patnaik, Patra’s fiercest adversary and senior Congress politician, has a younger brother.

Patnaik had traveled to Puri earlier in the day to offer his respects to Lord Jagannath, after which he continued on to Ghatagaon. He received greetings from locals at many locations along the route to the Maa Tarini shrine.