Indus Valley Times

By Nalini Sahu

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 17: Ex-Chief Minister of Odisha, Giridhar Gamang and his family members on Wednesday returned to the Congress ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

According to reports, Giridhar Gamang along with his wife Hema Gamang and son Shishir Gamang joined the Congress in the presence of the party’s Odisha in-charge, Ajoy Kumar in New Delhi.

Apart from the Gamang family, former MP Sanjay Bhoi also joined the Congress.

Gamang is a prominent tribal leader and was elected to the Lok Sabha nine times. He had left Congress and joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with his son in 2015.

Citing reasons behind his decision to quit BJP, Giridhar Gamang earlier had said, “Insult on road is tolerable in politics but not humiliation. I have never tolerated humiliation and will continue to do the same.”

In fact, the Gamangs felt sidelined in the BJP. Though the junior Gamang was given ticket to contest from Gunupur assembly constituency IN 2019, Giridhar Gamang did not get opportunity to fight polls.

Subsequently, the father-son duo quit the BJP and joined K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). However, the BRS which had promised big about its Odisha mission remained a non-starter. It could not even open its office in the state.

Almost all the 80 leaders from Odisha who were flown to Hyderabad by a special flight by the BRS, have already left the party and joined other political platforms.

Giridhar Gamang, who represented Koraput Lok Sabha seat for nine times, stirred a controversy in May 1999, Giridhar Gamang when he voted in a no-confidence motion against the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government though he was Odisha chief minister – he had taken over as CM in February 1999. He had not resigned from his Lok Sabha seat then. His deciding vote led to fall of the Vajpayee government.

Once counted among the country’s best-known tribal leaders, Gamang was a Union minister for 11 years. He served as a Union ministers with three Prime Ministers — Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao. He was elevated as Odisha CM on February 18, 1999, but his term was cut short on December 6, 1999, by the party after 10,000 people died in the super cyclone.

The tribal leader last contested the Koraput seat in 2014 and lost the election to the tribal-dominated seat to Jhina Hikaka of Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

The father-son duo were cold-shouldered by BJP after Shishir Gamang came a distant fourth in the 2019 assembly polls on the Gunupur seat winning only 11% of the votes.

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Photo (from left): Hema Gamang, her son Shishir Gamang and Giridhar Gamang with central Congress leaders at party’s national headquarters in New Delhi on Wednesday