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Who is Sofia Firdous, Odisha Congress MLA who allegedly picked BJP in Rajya Sabha polls?
The Sofia Firdous cross-voting story began two days before the Rajya Sabha polls, when she expressed dissatisfaction over Congress decision to support the BJD.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) got an edge in Monday's Rajya Sabha polls across 10 states as many opposition MLAs voted for candidates backed by the ruling party at the centre. In Odisha, three Congress MLAs- Ramesh Jena, Dasarathi Gomango and Sofia Firdous - voted in favour of the BJP-backed independent candidate.
The Congress, in a suspension letter, claimed the three leaders voted for Ray during the Rajya Sabha elections on Monday.
Announcing their suspension, the state Congress in a social media post said, "Those who betray Congress are betraying the nation."
The most striking name among them was Sofia Firdous. Despite being a first-time MLA elected in 2024, she broke party lines to support the BJP-backed candidate Dilip Ray.
The cross-voting story began two days before the election, when she expressed her dissatisfaction with the Congress party’s decision to support the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate. She claimed the party did not consult its MLAs or ask for their consent regarding the candidate choice.
According to Firdous, BJD has historically been the "B-team" of the BJP, supporting the BJP on critical issues such as the Waqf Bill.
So on the day of the vote, she chose to cast her ballot for the “A team” instead of the “B team”.
Who is Sofia Firdous?
Born on August 23, 1991, Sofia Firdous is the Congress MLA for the Barabati-Cuttack constituency in Odisha. She holds the distinction of being the first female Odia Muslim MLA and is part of the state assembly's "millennial" generation.
She isn't the first legislator from her family; her father, Mohammed Moquim, served as the MLA for the same constituency in the previous term. He could not contest in 2024 as the Odisha High Court disqualified him due to legal cases. So the Congress party decided to give the ticket to his daughter.
Sofia Firdous did her schooling from St. Joseph's Girls High School and Ravenshaw Junior College in Cuttack. She then obtained a B.Tech degree in Civil Engineering from KIIT, Bhubaneswar, and later completed an Executive General Management Program at IIM Bangalore in 2022.
Firdous was an entrepreneur before she was a politician, having worked as a director at Metro Group, where she played a key role in real estate and asset development projects.
She has been married to businessman Sheikh Merajul Haque since 2015.
2024 Election Victory
In her political debut, Sofia Firdous defeated the BJP's Purna Chandra Mahapatra by a margin of 8,001 votes. According to her election affidavit, she declared assets worth ₹5.24 crore.
