ONI Bureau: Under tremendous pressure due to rise of BJD and BJP in his area, SKD MLA from Birmitrapur and firebrand tribal leader George Tirkey rejoined Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) today in the presence of Shibu Soren and Hemant Soren in Ranchi.
Tirkey’s clout in Birmitrapur took a severe beating after his candidates did poor in Zilla Parishad polls. The JMM too needed Tirkey as the party continued to lose its base in Sundargarh district.
George Tirkey had won the Birmitrapur seat in 1995 and 2000 on JMM ticket. He later joined the BJD, but failed to get ticket in 2004. He lost the polls as Independent candidate. He later won there in 2009 as the Independent candidate and in 2014 on Samata Kranti Dal (SKD) ticket. SKD was floated by him. But, post 2015, his popularity graph started diminishing.