BJP leader joins BJD, Cong leader quits, OJM expels it gs

A day after poll dates are announced, Odisha today saw senior Congress leader Kamala Das quitting her party and hinting that she will join BJD while BJP leader Golak Naik joined the Biju Janata Dal and OJM expelled its general secretary-cum- spokesperson Amiya Pandav from the party for 'anti-party activities.'
"I have sent my resignation letter to the OPCC president and AICC president. A section of senior leaders run the party according to their whims without consulting others," Das, a former minister who represented Bhogarai assembly segment from Balasore district, said.
Das, who was member of the Biju Patnaik cabinet from 1990 to 1995, also indicated that she could return to the BJD. "I will return home. After all, we had formed the BJD," she said.

Das was also the Health and Family Welfare minister in Naveen Patnaik's first term as Chief Minister from 2000.
Similarly, BJP leader and former minister Golak Naik, who had quit his party few days ago, today formally joined the BJD in presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
"I have been a member of the Naveen Patnaik cabinet from 2000 to 2009 as a BJP minister. However, there is no intra-party democracy in the state BJP now. Since I want to do something for tribals, I joined the BJD," Naik, who was also the national general secretary of the BJP's tribal morcha, said.

Odisha JanMorcha (OJM) chief Pyarimohan Mohapatra today expelled party's general secretary-cum-spokesperson Amiya Pandav from the party for 'anti-party activities.'
OJM justified the expulsion order saying Pandav had been hobnobbing with leaders of other parties and creating disturbances in OJM. It also said the magazine edited by him had carried a number of articles vilifying OJM leaders.
Pandav, however, said and several other workers of the OJM had 'resigned' from the party in protest against the dictatorial style of functioning of president Pyari Mohan Mohapatra.