Bhubaneswar: Independent MLA and tribal leader from Sundargarh George Tirkey is expected to join the Jharkhanda Mukti Morcha (JMM) shortly while former Rajanagar MLA Alekh Jena of the BJD today joined the BJP in presence of Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Pattamundai in Kendrapara district.

Sources said Tirkey had written to the JMM leadership expressing his desire to return to the party with which he had begun his political career. Earlier, he had got elected twice on JMM ticket. Though he set up the Samata Kranti Dal's Odisha unit, he managed to win the seat from Biramitrapur on his own strength in 2014 as an Independent candidate.

"We will be happy to welcome him. He was our own. He enjoys a lot of clout in the tribal belt of Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Keonjhar districts. We will welcome him by organising a big meeting," said a senior JMM leader.

With this move, there is little doubt that he will contest the next election on a JMM ticket.

However, Tirkey has maintained that he is yet to take a decision on whether he would contest the next election or not.

What has become a concern for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is that there is competition between the BJD and the BJP to appropriate the political space occupied by the JMM, a major political force in Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Mayurbhanj.

The BJD had roped in JMM leader Debasis Marandi, who had fought the last general election in Mayurbhanj against the BJD's sitting MP, Ram Chandra Hansdha, now in jail for his alleged involvement in the money deposit collection scam.

The JMM had turned Mayurbhanj and Sundargarh districts into its bastion and won two Assembly seats - one from each district - in 2004. It had also won the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat in 2004. The seat was represented by former JMM leader Sudam Marandi, currently an MLA on a BJD ticket.

The party had inducted Sudam Marandi in 2014 along with another JMM leader, Bhadav Hansda, now a BJD MLA from Saraskana.

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