Giridhar Gamang, 80, an ex-CM of Odisha who left the Congress in 2015 to re-join the party
After leaving the Congress in 2015, Giridhar Gamang, a nine-time Koraput Lok Sabha MP from 1972 to 2004, quickly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Bhubaneswar: According to those acquainted with the situation, Giridhar Gamang, an 80-year-old former chief minister of Odisha who left the Congress in 2015, is anticipated to re-join the group on January 17 with his wife and son.
After leaving the Congress in 2015, Gamang, a nine-time Koraput Lok Sabha MP from 1972 to 2004, quickly joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He left the BJP in January of last year, and a few days later, he joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi, which is led by K Chandrasekhar Rao.
There have been rumors that Giridhar Gamang and his son Shisir are leaving the BRS. Shishir Gamang shared a snapshot of his meeting with Ajay Bose, the head of the Congress, on Saturday.
Giridhar Gamang, his wife Hema, and their son Sishir are expected to join the Congress on Wednesday in Delhi, according to officials of the Odisha Congress.
Even though Giridhar Gamang was the chief minister of Odisha when he controversially voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee administration in May 1999; he had assumed the position in February 1999 but had not resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.
Once regarded as one of the most well-known tribal leaders in the nation, Gamang served as a federal minister for 11 years in central administrations headed by Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao. Gamang represented Koraput nine times between 1972 and 2004. On February 18, 1999, he was promoted to chief minister; however, the party terminated his tenure on December 6, 1999, citing the 10,000 fatalities from the super typhoon.
In 2015, Gamang severed his 43-year affiliation with the Congress, citing the party as the cause of his degradation and loss of dignity.
When Gamang ran for the Koraput seat last time, in 2014, he was defeated by Jhina Hikaka of the Biju Janata Dal in an election that was dominated by tribal people. Shisir Gamang received barely 11% of the votes in the 2019 assembly polls, placing him in a distant fourth place. As a result, the father-son team had little support from the BJP.
In addition to the Gamangs, the party will welcome Sanjay Bhoi, who had won the 2009 elections on a Congress ticket from the Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency. Bhoi came in third place behind the BJP and BJD candidates in 2014. After the Congress failed to provide him a ticket for the 2019 elections, he left the party and joined the BJP. It’s expected that Bhoi will start for Bargarh.