BHUBANESWAR: Former Union Minister Dilip Ray on Tuesday announced that he will contest the Rajya Sabha polls as an Independent candidate, even as state BJP President Manmohan Samal declared the party’s support for him, setting the stage for a contest for one of the four seats falling vacant from Odisha.Of the four seats that fall vacant on April 2, part of the 37 going to polls on March 16, the BJP has the numbers to win two, the BJD one, while no party has a clear majority for the fourth seat.BJD President Naveen Patnaik named eminent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota as the “common candidate” for the fourth seat, a choice backed by the Congress. With Ray entering the fray with BJP support, the contest for the fourth seat is now wide open.Exuding confidence in Ray’s victory, state BJP chief Samal said, “If we were not sure about his victory, we would not have come forward for support.”After winning two seats, requiring 60 votes, the BJP will have 22 surplus votes, falling short by eight for Ray. Similarly, the BJD, after securing one seat, will have 18 surplus votes for Hota. With support from the Congress, which has 14 MLAs, the BJD-backed Hota may garner 32 votes and could win if there is no cross-voting.Hotelier-politician Ray last won a Rajya Sabha election from Odisha in 2002 as an Independent, after being expelled from the BJD, a victory made possible through large-scale cross-voting by BJD and BJP MLAs.Ray began his political career in 1985 as chairman of the then Rourkela Notified Council and was elected MLA the same year from Rourkela (1985–90). He was re-elected in 1990 and served as Industries Minister in the Biju Patnaik-led Janata Dal government (1990–95).He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1996 and served two consecutive terms (1996–2002, 2002–2008). Ray joined the BJP in 2009 and won the Rourkela assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2014. He also played a key role in the formation of the BJD.A Special CBI court on October 6, 2020, convicted Ray in a 1999 coal block allocation case when he was Minister of State for Coal in the Vajpayee government. The Delhi High Court stayed his conviction in April 2024.The last contest for a Rajya Sabha seat in Odisha was in 2014, when Congress nominee Ranjib Biswal defeated BJD-backed Independent Raghunath Mohapatra, who was also supported by the BJP.For the two seats where it has the numbers, the BJP named state unit chief Manmohan Samal and renominated outgoing RS MP Sujeet Kumar. The BJD fielded corporate-leader-turned-politician Santrupt Misra for one seat, for which it is comfortably placed to win.
