TNI Bureau: Former Minister and Nimapara MLA Samir Ranjan Dash joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today soon after resigning from BJD over denial of ticket to contest the assembly elections.
Dash joined the saffron fold at the party office in Bhubaneswar in the presence of the State President Monmohan Samal, election in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar and other senior party leaders.
“The leader of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has lost confidence on me and the party organisations in Gop and Nimapara. Hence, it will not be wise to stay in the party anymore. Therefore, I today resigned from the primary membership of the BJD. I sent my letter of resignation to party president Naveen Patnaik,” said the former education minister in a video message after sending his resignation letter to BJD president Naveen Patnaik.
It is to be noted here that Dash represented the Nimapara Assembly constituency thrice consecutively in 2009, 2014, 2019. However, the ruling party this time replaced him with Dilip Nayak who had recently switched from the BJP.