Bhubaneswar, Nov 6: A week after resigning from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), former Odisha MLA Sunanda Das officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday. Her husband, Debendra Kumar Das, also became a member of the saffron party in a ceremony held in Bhubaneswar, with BJP state president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders present.
Sunanda, the former MLA from Bari in Jajpur district, had resigned from the BJD the previous week, accusing the party and its leadership of corruption. After her resignation, she made serious allegations regarding the distribution of party tickets for the 2024 Odisha elections. Sunanda claimed that ticket aspirants were instructed to meet officers D S Kutey and Ashish Singh, and she herself had been assured of a ticket after meeting them.
She further alleged undue interference in the election process by these individuals, including Ashish Singh and D S Kutey. Sunanda, who won the 2019 elections from Bari with a margin of over 4,000 votes, was denied a ticket for the 2024 elections. Following her denial, she claimed to have met V K Pandian at Naveen Niwas, who denied involvement in the ticket distribution process for Jajpur district. Pandian, however, allegedly encouraged her to work for the former CM, who was contesting from Kantabanji. Sunanda said she reluctantly complied, despite her decision to avoid Bari after being denied the ticket.