With both the general election and the state’s Assembly election around the corner, the Odisha unit of the Congress party is launching a house visit programme, ‘Ghar Ghar Congress’, on 15th September, said Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Sarat Pattnaik on Tuesday.

Under the ‘Ghar Ghar Congress’ programme the leaders and workers of the Congress will visit each house of the state to deliver the party’s message. Sarat Pattnaik said that “how the Odisha government is neglecting OBC, SC and ST and how BJP and BJD leaders are looting Odisha will be highlighted in the house visits”.
Meanwhile, eminent Muslim leader Md Shah Nawaj joined Congress on Tuesday. Minority department leaders like K Raju and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Sarat Patnaik were present at the occasion.

Speaking to ANI, Shah Nawaj said, “I am an advocate of Odisha High Court. I was in the Congress Odisha Minority Department for the last thirty years.”
On his decision about quitting the Congress four years back, Shah Nawaj said that after 2014 the programs brought out by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) inspired many people to change sides.

“After 2014 some central programs were so inspiring that people started changing sides. These programs were based on necessities. So Congress leaders diverted to many places, some to BJP, some to BJD,” he reasoned.

Slamming the BJP, Shah Nawaj said, “The claim about secularism is not at all present…it seems as if Governor’s rule going on. Where is the government?”
Speaking about coming back to Congress, he said, “Congress is the only party that is secular. Kharge ji, Rahul ji, Sonia ji, their Bharat Jodo Yatra..is inspiring. Whenever someone questions in Parliament they are marshalled out. So we got inspired to come back to Congress.”

Shah Nawaj, a Muslim leader from
Cuttack, has worked as the Odisha chief of the Minority Department in Congress.
Shah Nawaj switched sides to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) four years back. However, he said that he grew disillusioned with the BJD when he witnessed that both the BJD and BJP did nothing for the Muslims.