Bhubaneswar: With a few days left for the elections in the state, BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Monday revoked the expulsion of former finance minister Prafulla Ghadai.
The veteran leader was expelled from the party in September 2014 for making statements against Naveen. He had purportedly questioned the leadership of the BJD president and accused him of being under the influence of a coterie.
According to sources, the BJD revoked the expulsion order in fear that he might join opposition party, especially BJP as Prafulla’s former colleague Damodar Rout recently joined the saffron camp.
This revocation order came after Ghadai’s son Priyaranjan had a meeting with Naveen here at the latter’s residence.
Ghadai was elected to State Assembly five times in a row since 1990 and served as finance minister in Naveen Patnaik government. After seeing his role in Pyari Mohan Mohapatra’s coup bid, Naveen had dropped him from the ministry in August 2012. Later, BJD denied a ticket to him in 2014.