In a last-minute exercise, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has changed its candidate for the Soro Assembly seat. The party has replaced Parshuram Dhada with Raju Das.
The party had earlier fielded BJD turncoat Raju Das from the Soro Assembly seat. Taking all by surprise, the party on Tuesday announced that it has nominated Parshuram Dhada in place of Das.
Informing about the development, Odisha election in-charge of the party, Vijaypal Singh Tomar said, “We have a parliamentary board, which takes the final decision. The board has now taken a decision and given the ticket to Parshuram Dhada.”
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Interestingly enough, today being the last date for filing nomination papers, both Das and Dhada filed their nomination papers.
In the 2009 elections, Dhada had unsuccessfully contested from Soro Assembly seat on a BJP ticket. He then switched over to BJD and was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly twice in 2014 and 2019.
In the 2024 elections, when the BJD denied him a ticket and fielded Madhav Dhada, he resigned from the party and joined the BJP.
(By Chandrakanta Jena)