Rourkela, Oct 23: After his exit from Congress last year, four-time Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey has expressed his interest to return to the BJD by admitting that he committed a blunder by quitting the ruling party in 2006.
Rumours about George going back to BJD gained credence after the 65-year-old leader said he is ready if the ruling party considers his return. However, the BJD leadership has not cleared the air after over a year he quit the Congress.
As he has a stronghold in Birmitrapur, the BJD is likely to welcome back him to the party fold for tribal votes of Sundargarh district.
He has made it clear that he is not returning to the Congress despite request of some veteran leaders due to infighting and indiscipline in the party.
Last year after quitting the Congress George said when he joined the BJD, there was an alliance with BJP. Of the seven Assembly seats in Sundargarh district, BJD had two and BJP the remaining five including his traditional stronghold of Birmitrapur.
I could not get to fight from the Birmitrapur Assembly constituency due to alliance compulsion and quit BJD in January 2006 on the spur of the moment.
George, who won twice from Birmitrapur in 1995 and 2000 on JMM ticket, had joined BJD in 2002. After resigning from BJD, he won from Birmitrapur in 2009 as an Independent. Later, he founded his own political party Samta Kranti Dal in 2014 and simultaneously won from Birmitrapur for the fourth time. He briefly returned to JMM before joining Congress in 2018.
In 2019, he contested the elections from Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat on Congress ticket while his son Rohit Joseph Tirkey tested his political luck as the party candidate in Birmitrapur Assembly seat. However, both lost the elections.
