Days after quitting BJD, 6-time MP Bhartruhari switches to BJP

SIX-TIME CUTTACK MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, who recently resigned from the BJD, joined the BJP in New Delhi on Thursday along with former Berhampur MP and actor Siddhant Mohapatra and noted Santali writer and Padma Shri Damayanti Beshra.

Mahtab, an editor-politician, has been representing the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat since 1998. Son of Odisha’s first chief minister Harekrushna Mahtab, Bhartruhari resigned from the BJD last week expressing displeasure over its functioning in recent years.

The development also came a day after a special court in Odisha framed charges against him in a 13-year-old case of assault on a police sub-inspector in 2011.

“I am going to start a new innings with a new team. The change Odisha is going to witness can be realised if someone will visit Odisha. The change is going to happen because of Modiji and Union home minister Amit Shah,” Mahtab told reporters after joining.

Along with BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde, senior leaders from Odisha including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda and state unit BJP chief Manmohan Samal were present in the joining ceremony.

Sources said the BJP may field Mahtab from the prestigious Cuttack Lok Sabha seat.

Mohapatra, a two-term MP from Berhampur from 2009 to 2019, was denied a ticket in the last general election. He was not active in politics ever since the actor was denied a ticket.

“The way the Prime Minister is working and the kind of transformation we are witnessing in the country, I wish Odisha also witnesses similar kinds of progress and transformation,” said Mohapatra.

The actor-politician may contest the coming assembly polls from a seat in Ganjam district, said BJP sources.

Beshra, an academician and writer, received the Padma Shri in 2020 for her contributions to Santali literature. In 1994, her first anthology “Jivi Jharna” was published — the first-ever anthology written and published by a female Santali writer.

The BJP is likely to field her from the Baripada assembly seat in tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district.

The developments come days after the possibility of a prepoll alliance between the BJD and BJP hit a roadblock.

Amit Mehra (From left) Bhartruhari Mahtab and Dr Damayanti Beshra at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Thursday.