Former Odisha CM Giridhar Gamang, wife, son rejoin Congress

Former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, who had resigned from the Congress in 2015, returned to the grand old party on Wednesday after a gap of almost eight years. The 80-year-old tribal leader rejoined the Congress in the presence of the party’s Odisha incharge Ajoy Kumar at a programme in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Gamang’s wife and former Congress MP, Hema Gamang, son Sishir Gamang and ex-Bargarh MP Sanjay Bhoi, too, rejoined the party at the event.

Last year, the veteran leader had joined the Bharat Rashtra Samithi at the party’s headquarters in the presence of party president and former Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana, just a few days after resigning from the BJP.

Gamang had joined the saffron party after snapping his 43-year relationship with the Congress in 2015. Elected to the Lok Sabha from Koraput constituency nine times since 1972, he had held several positions including Union minister of communications, food processing industries, mines etc. under several Congress governments during his long career.

The Vajpayee-led NDA Government lost the no confidence motion by one vote in April 1999, and Gamang was accused of being responsible by the losing party as he allegedly voted for the motion as a Congress member of the Lok Sabha even after becoming the chief minister of Odisha in February 1999.