BJD Lok Sabha member Anubhav joins BJP

Bhubaneswar: The BJD’s Lok Sabha member Anubhav Mohanty joined the BJP on Monday at the party’s headquarters in Delhi. He had resigned from the BJD on Saturday saying he was feeling “suffocated’ there.

Anubhav is the second sitting BJD MP after Bhartruhari Mahtab to quit the regional party ahead of the 2024 General Elections and join the BJP. He was a Rajya Sabha member before being elected to the Lok Sabha from Kendrapara in 2019.

Anubhav, a cine star, praised Narendra Modi government, saying he was proud to witness the passage of several historic measures in Parliament, including the abolition of triple talaq and the introduction of new criminal laws in the last five years.

Besides Anubhav, three other Ollywood stars -- former BJD Lok Sabha member Sidhant Mohapatra, former BJD MLA Akash Das Nayak and BJD leader Arindam Ray, resigned from the regional party and joined the BJP.