Bhubaneswar: Prabodh Tirkey, the former Indian hockey captain, who had resigned from Congress on Saturday joined BJP at a function in Odisha’s Sonepur on Thursday.
Tirkey joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in the presence of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, state BJP President Manmohan Samal and several other senior leaders of the party.
Earliler, Tirkey was nominated as candidate for Talasara Assembly constituency in Sundargarh by the Congress party. The party replaced Tirkey with Debendra Bhitaria in the Talsara assembly seat. Tirkey expressing his frustration cited, “I feel betrayed by the Congress leadership. They have betrayed my trust.” Tirkey also added, “It was an insult to me as the party withdrew my candidature without informing me the reason behind it.” He even mentioned that he tried to contact the party senior leaders to discuss the matter but no one answered his calls, which was extremely disrespectful.
Tirkey, who had joined Congress in September 2023, had expressed shock over the party’s decision to drop him. He said he had no clue why the Congress dropped him while he had already started campaigning. As a result, he joined the BJP today.
