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Former BJD MP Rabindra Kumar Jena joins BJP day after quitting party
Jena had submitted his resignation from BJD’s primary membership on Tuesday, citing “personal causes and circumstances” in his letter to party supremo Naveen Patnaik
A day after resigning from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), former Balasore MP Rabindra Kumar Jena formally joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha on Wednesday, along with his supporters, at the party’s state headquarters in Bhubaneswar.
BJP’s Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders were present at the event.
Jena had submitted his resignation from BJD’s primary membership on Tuesday, citing “personal causes and circumstances” in his letter to party supremo Naveen Patnaik.
Jena’s joining came a day before a scheduled CBI court hearing on March 12, in a case where the agency has filed a chargesheet against Jena for his alleged involvement in the Seashore chit fund scam in Odisha.
Jena had won the Balasore Lok Sabha seat on a BJD ticket in 2014 but lost it to BJP’s Pratap Sarangi in 2019. He was denied the party ticket in 2024 general elections, with BJD fielding former BJP member Lekhashree Samantasinghar from the constituency instead.
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His wife, Subasini Jena, the sitting BJD MLA from Basta, was, however, fielded by the party in the 2024 Assembly elections and won by a margin of over 20,000 votes against Congress candidate Bijan Nayak.
Separately, the Basta and Balasore block chairpersons, along with six Zilla Parishad members from the district, also joined the BJP on Wednesday.
Defending his decision, Jena said, “BJP is the only party capable of developing Odisha as well as India.” He added that while he held Patnaik in high regard, he believed a regional party could not survive without passing the baton to the next generation of leaders — a concern he claimed to have raised with the BJD leadership on multiple occasions, without result.
