Rourkela: Former Union Minister Dilip Ray has moved Orissa High Court, seeking declaration of the election of BJD MLA from Rourkela Sarada Prasad Nayak as void.
He has accused him of suppressing information at the time of filing of nomination.
The BJP leader had returned to electoral politics after a 5-year hiatus but lost to Nayak, who was the labour minister in the BJD government, from Rourkela Assembly seat by 3,552 votes.
Ray had won from Rourkela in 1985 and 1990 assembly elections. He also served as Minister of Industries in the Janata Dal Government headed by Biju Patnaik. He, however, lost the 1995 polls to Prabhat Mohapatra of the Congress and was subsequently nominated to Rajya Sabha in 1996. He continued to be the member of the Upper House for two consecutive terms (1996–2002, 2002–2008). He was the Minister of State (Coal) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
He joined the BJP after being ousted from BJD in 2000 following a difference of opinion with the then Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik. He contested as the saffron party’s MLA candidate in 2014 elections from Rourkela and won the seat by defeating Nayak with a margin of 10,929 votes. He did not contest the 2019 elections.
Nayak emerged victorious from the constituency in 2004, 2009, 2019 and again in 2024 polls.
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