Putting all speculations to rest, former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Baijayant Panda – who had quit the Naveen Patnaik-led party in May last year – joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday.

Panda, one of the founding members of the BJD, joined the BJP at party’s central office in New Delhi in the presence of Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram and BJP general secretary and party in-charge for Odisha Arun Singh.

Odisha BJP president Basant Panda and BJP Legislative Party leader KV Singh Deo were also present on the occasion. After joining the BJP, Panda soon met party president Amit Shah at his residence here.

It could be noted that Odisha features prominently in BJP’s scheme of things. Panda’s joining will certainly give an edge to BJP in Odisha where the saffron party looks to strike gold in the upcoming 2019 elections, political observers say.

“We have a situation in Odisha where governance has sharply deteriorated in the recent years. There is an extremely high rise of crime especially against women and children. There is an extremely high level of corruption in the state. The situation in Odisha needs changing and only the BJP is capable of doing this,” Panda said talking to reporters.

“PM Modi has demonstrated that he is capable of taking tough decisions which are in the long-term interest of the country be it in the field of economy or defence of the country,” Panda, a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies since during his BJD days, said. Panda was elected from politically-hot Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency on a BJD ticket in 2009 and subsequently in 2014. He had quit the BJD in May 2018 and subsequently resigned from the Lok Sabha in June last year.