Bhubaneswar: Barabati-Cuttack MLA Sofia Firdous will contest the 2029 Assembly polls from the newly-formed Odisha Janata Congress (OJC), announced her father and former legislator Mohammed Moquim on Sunday.

Moquim’s statement put an end to all speculation about the future political move of Firdous, who had won the Barabati-Cuttack seat on a Congress party ticket in 2024.

“Sofia will not contest the 2029 Assembly polls on Congress ticket. She will fight the elections from Barabati-Cuttack seat on OJP ticket,” said Moquim, the founder of the newly-formed regional party in Odisha.

According to the former legislator, the Congress party has drifted away from its core ideology and it has ‘no future’ in the state as well as in the country.

“The Congress party has suffered repeated electoral defeats in many states, including Odisha, and at the national level due to poor leadership. The party is facing acute factionalism in the state. I was expelled from the Congress party for raising all these issues,” stated Moquim.

The OJC founder claimed that the Congress party had retained the Barabati-Cuttack seat in 2024 Assembly polls due to his organizational strength in the constituency.

“I had won the Barabati-Cuttack seat on a Congress ticket in 2019 and my daughter retained the seat in 2024. Our personal connection with locals helped us to win the seat twice consecutively,” said Moqium.  

It is worth mentioning here that Firdous and two other Congress MLAs—Ramesh Jena and Dasarathi Gomango—were suspended from the party in connection with the alleged cross-voting during the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha.