NEW DELHI: Former Odisha chief minister Giridhar Gamang, 80, rejoined the Congress along with his wife and son on Wednesday, insisting that he had adhered to the party’s ideology even after his exit in 2015.

“We are very happy that Giridhar Gamang, Hema Gamang, Sanjay Bhoi and Shishir Gamang – all our colleagues – have returned to the Congress. They have played a crucial role in the development of Odisha,” said senior Congress leader and treasurer Ajay Maken as he welcomed them back at an event in Delhi on Wednesday.

“Odisha’s four leaders, who were a part of the Congress family but left for some reason, are now returning home,” added Congress leader Ajoy Kumar on the return of the Gamang family and former Bargarh MP Sanjay Bhoi.

Gamang and his family exited the Congress and switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2015. In January last year, he quit the BJP too and joined the K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharat Rashtra Samithi days later. The Gamang family has been widely rumoured to be trying to return to Congress for months.

“I will live where I was born. I never left the party, its thoughts and ideology,” Gamang said on Wednesday after rejoining the Congress.

He also thanked the Congress for letting his family back, saying he had spent 42 of the 50 years in politics as a member of the Congress party. “I want to thank everyone, including our leader Rahul Gandhi…Congress party is a party that engages in principled politics…and I want to be a part of such a party,” he said.

Gamang represented the Koraput Lok Sabha seat nine times between 1972 and 2004 and served as a union minister for 11 in the central government under leaders Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and Narasimha Rao. He was elevated as chief minister of Odisha on February 18, 1999, but his term was cut short on December 6, 1999, by the party after 10,000 people died in the super cyclone.