Ex-India hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey joins Congress

Bhubaneswar: Former India hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey joined the Congress at the party’s Odisha unit headquarters here on Monday. He expressed his desire to contest the forthcoming Assembly elections from Talsara. Talsara segment is in tribal-dominated Sundargarh district.

Prabodh was inducted into the party in the presence of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Pattanayak, its State in-charge A Chella Kumar and other senior leaders.

Prabodh said he decided to join the party as the ''work of Rahul Gandhi deeply influenced'' him and asserted that his family has a ''long association with the Congress''.

People in Talsara area are ''neglected'', he said, adding that the ''tribals do not get any benefit from government schemes''. Tirkey made his debut in Junior Asia Cup in 2000. He was the national captain of sub-junior, junior and India-A teams and finally became the India senior team captain.He played 135 international matches for the country.