Actor-turned politician Arindam & former Gunupur MLA Trinath Gomango join BJP

Bhubaneswar: Actor-turned-politician Arindam Roy on Friday joined the BJP, hours after resigning from the post of general secretary and primary membership of BJD. Former Gunupur MLA Trinath Gomango also joined the BJP.

They were inducted into the saffron party in the presence of state president Manmohan Samal, former state unit president Samir Mohanty and other senior leaders, including Gopalpur MLA Pardeep Panigrahi, at the party headquarters in Bhubaneswar.

Earlier in the day, Arindam had submitted his resignation to BJD president Naveen Patnaik through party’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, who is also his brother-in-law.

“I have been working at the ground level as observer in various elections in Cuttack, Tirtol, Tirtol byelection and Koraput during the Zilla Parishad and municipality polls. However, my work has not yet been recognised by you or your appointed members. I have been trying to meet my leader which is you since quite some time, but unfortunately I did not get the opportunity. Therefore, I feel that I do not fit the criteria of meeting you and my place in your party is nothing. So, I resign from my post of general secretary and the primary membership of your party. I hope you will understand my situation and not keep any grudge against me (sic),” he wrote in his resignation letter.

Arindam was associated with BJD since 2009 and was its star campaigner since 2014 elections. On January 8, the actor had created a flutter with his 30-minute meeting with Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at an Inspection Bungalow in Cuttack district. He had then clarified that the meeting was part of his effort to work for the people of Odisha. He had added that he was inspired by the good work of BJD supremo and was open to contesting the upcoming elections.

Trinath had won the Gunupur Assembly seat in 2014 after joining the BJD in 2009. He, however, resigned from the regional party in March 2019, alleging the party has let him down by organising a rally at Gunupur in Rayagada district in his absence and projecting Raghunath Gomango as a probable candidate from the seat. He contested the 2019 elections as an independent and finished third after Raghunath, who won the seat as a BJD nominee by a huge margin, and Purusottam Gomango of Congress.