ANS: Chaibasa: In a significant political development ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Geeta Koda, the Member of Parliament representing Chaibasa, has announced her decision to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today. This move is being viewed as a major setback for the Congress and the INDIA bloc, given Koda’s influential stature in the Kolhan region.
Geeta Koda resigned from the Congress and was formally inducted into the BJP in the presence of the party’s Jharkhand unit president, Babulal Marandi.
Explaining her decision, Koda stated, “I joined the BJP today. The Congress has put the country in trouble by indulging in appeasement politics. The party says it will take everyone along, but it takes only its family along.”
She further emphasized that her decision was influenced by the governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “This change of heart has happened because of the way PM Modi is taking everyone ahead. He is working for every section of society. That’s his big plus point,” she added.
Geeta Koda’s defection is expected to have significant implications for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, particularly in the Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat, which she won on a Congress ticket in 2019.
Born in 1983 in Kiriburu, West Singhbhum, Geeta Koda created history by becoming the youngest MLA in the Jharkhand assembly in 2009 from the Jagannathpur constituency. She married Madhu Koda in 2004, and the couple has three children – two daughters and a son. The Singhbhum Lok Sabha seat is reserved for Scheduled Tribes candidates.
Notably, Singhbhum was the only seat won by the Congress in the 2019 elections, with Geeta Koda defeating the then state BJP president, Laxman Gilua.