By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The Orissa chief of the Youth Congress quit Wednesday and joined the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Rohit Pujari joined the party with hundreds of supporters, BJD general secretary Damodar Rout told reporters.
“I joined BJD because it is a regional party and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, its leader, has a clean image,” Pujari said, adding that he quit to protest the party ignoring the demand that youth be given a chance to contest the upcoming parliamentary and assembly elections.
“We were demanding 30 percent party tickets for youth in the Lok Sabha and assembly election in the state. However, our demands seem to have been ignored,” Pujari told reporters before joining the BJD.
Pujari’s resignation has come as a jolt to the Congress that is hoping to benefit from the collapse of the BJD and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition.
The Congress party is yet to announce the names of its candidates for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls that will be held in the state in two phases April 16 and April 23.