Koraput: Congress MLA from the district Krushna Chandra Sagaria changed his religion from Hinduism to Buddhism on Sunday.

"Being influenced by the philosophy of Buddhism, I decided to embrace the religion with my family," Sagaria said.

The conversion ceremony was held in a special function at his native village Buruja under Laxmipur block in the district, which was attended by hundreds of people from Koraput, Kalahandi and Balangir districts.

"Four Buddhist monks had arrived from Nagpur for the ceremony and about 40 families from Koraput and Balangir districts embraced Buddhism on the occasion," Sagaria further said. He said all legal formalities required for changing his religion were fulfilled and in this regard he had filed an affidavit before the district collector for necessary action.

"It is not a hastily taken decision. I was following Buddhism for the past one decade and finally decided to embrace it. During my interactions with various Buddhist monks, I came to know that my forefathers were Buddhist. So, I treat this as a home-coming and not conversion," Sagaria said. The first timer MLA, who belongs to scheduled caste, said the most important thing which he liked in Buddhism was that "Human Being' was the centre of all activities and "Human Being" was given importance in Buddhism which was rarely found in any other religion.