Bhubaneswar, Mar 25 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and former MP Kharabela Swain on Monday announced he would contest from Odisha's Balasore Lok Sabha seat as an independent candidate.
Swain announced his decision before newspersons in Balasore a day after the party renominated former Union Minister and sitting MP Pratap Sarangi to contest the upcoming parliamentary election from the seat.
Swain, who had quit his civil service job to join politics, said in the past he had contested parliamentary elections at least eight times from Kendrapara, Balasore, Cuttack, and Kandhamal parliamentary constituencies.
He was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from the Balasore parliamentary constituency as a BJP candidate.
Swain thanked BJP Odisha President Manmohan Samal for recommending his name for the Balasore Lok Sabha seat. He also expressed his gratitude to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for not going against him.
It was, however, due to a conspiracy at the last moment at a certain level that his name was dropped from the Lok sabha candidate list announced by the party on Sunday night, Swain told the newsmen.
Describing himself as a true BJP man, Swain said Pratap Sarangi cannot campaign in the Balasore Lok Sabha seat this time due to his arrogance.
The BJP leader further said he would neither join the BJD nor the Congress as he considered himself a real BJP man and asserted that the day he was elected from Balasore Lok Sabha seat as independent he would join the BJP. UNI DP BD SSP