Odisha ex-MLA Mohd Moquim, expelled by Congress, says he will launch new party

FHaliotis tuberculata Odisha legislator mahomet Moquim on tues said he testament swim a new political outfit in March and was in consultations with political leaders, supporters and civil society members ahead of the launch.Moquim, who was expelled from the Congress in December after criticising the party’s state leadership, said the new party may be called “Odisha Janata Congress” or “Odisha Lok Congress”.“I am in touch with many leaders from other parties. Many people from other parties also contacted me. I am fully prepared. After March, when the party is formally launched, you will be able to see the final shape,” Moquim said.Moquim was elected from the Cuttack-Barabati assembly seat in the 2019 assembly elections. He was, however, sentenced to three years in prison by a special vigilance court in 2022 over allegations that he submitted forged and fabricated documents to avail a ₹1.5 crore loan from Odisha Rural Housing & Development Corporation, a state agency. In 2024, his daughter Sofia Firdous contested from the seat on a Congress ticket and won.Moquim, who runs the Metro Group that has interests in real estate, hospitality and retail, said he plans to hold two conventions, including a women’s conclave by January 30. “I will discuss the problems faced by women in the state and prepare my agenda accordingly,” he said, adding that the party would begin preparations for the upcoming municipal and panchayat elections.Political experts underlined that Odisha’s political landscape was littered with failed regional experiments.Prof Anil Kumar Mohapatra at Balasore’s Fakir Mohan University said unlike the late 1990s, when anti-incumbency against the Congress created a clear opening, Odisha today was witnessing the consolidation of the BJP as the principal pole of power.“With control over both the state government and the Centre, the BJP enjoys institutional leverage, organizational depth, and resource advantages that no emerging regional party can match,” he said.Mohapatra added that Moquim’s conviction dented his image.“Naveen Patnaik apart from being Biju Patnaik’s son always enjoyed a clean image and that’s one major reason why BJD succeeded for so long. The BJD succeeded because it inherited Biju Patnaik’s organisational legacy and attracted substantial resources. What comparable infrastructure does Moquim command? Contemporary politics demands more than symbolic leadership or episodic alliances. A new regional party would need a compelling narrative that goes beyond opposition to the BJP or nostalgia for the BJD’s past. It would require grassroots organization, credible leadership, financial resources, and a clearly articulated development agenda capable of mobilizing voters across Odisha’s diverse regions,” he said.“The Ganatantra Parishad, founded by former princely rulers in the late 1940s, successfully challenged Congress dominance and even shared power in a coalition government in the early 1960s, but its limited social base and leadership-centric structure eventually led to its decline. Similarly, the Utkal Congress, formed in 1969 when Biju Patnaik left the Indian National Congress, won 33 seats and 23% of the vote in the 1971 elections, only to merge into Bharatiya Lok Dal by 1974. The Jana Congress under Dr Harekrushna Mahatab followed a similar trajectory,” said political observer Rabi Das.He said Utkal Bharat, formed in 2010, contested elections but failed to win any Zilla Parishad seats despite fielding 67 candidates while Odisha Gana Parishad, launched in 2000 by Bijoy Mohapatra after his expulsion from the BJD, won merely two Assembly seats in 2004 before merging with the Nationalist Congress Party in 2007.