BHUBANESWAR: Tribal leader and Samata Kranti Dal MLA from Biramitrapur, George Tirkey, and environmentalist-cum-activist Sudarsan Das joined Congress in presence of party president Rahul Gandhi and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) chief Niranjan Patnaik in New Delhi on Wednesday.Tirkey, a four-time legislator, had won the Biramitrapur assembly seat as a Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) candidate in 1995 and 2000, as an independent candidate in 2009 and as a Samata Kranti Dal nominee in 2014. Tirkey had joined BJD in 2002. But after being denied ticket in 2004, he had unsuccessfully contested for the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat and Biramitrapur assembly constituency as an Independent. He quit BJD in 2006.Speculation is rife the Congress may field Tirkey as candidate for Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Currently, Sundargarh is represented by senior BJP leader and union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram. Tirkey said he will work to defeat the "corrupt" BJD government in Odisha and BJP in Centre. "I am confident that the joining of Tirkey and Das would strengthen our party's base in Odisha.Das has been spearheading a campaign to save Mahanadi river, whose flow has been blocked by Chhattisgarh . Both BJD and BJP failed to resolve Mahanadi crisis," Patnaik said.

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