Bhubaneswar: Will former Union Minister Dilip Ray contest the ensuing elections in Odisha? Speculation is rife that he might enter the poll fray from Rourkela Assembly segment on BJP ticket.
Though Ray is yet to make his intentions clear, the Delhi High Court staying his conviction in a coal scam case has fuelled discussions in different circles about the former Rourkela legislator reviving his political career.
The BJP has not announced its candidate for Rourkela, lending credence to the reinduction of Ray to the saffron fold and becoming the party nominee in the upcoming polls.
Seventy-year-old Ray has been in political hibernation since 2018 when he quit BJP. In 2020, he was convicted in a coal block allocation case pertaining to his tenure as Union Minister of State for Coal in 1999.
However, he moving the court and succeeding in getting a stay on his conviction and getting permission to fight the elections has triggered talks of his possible entry into the electoral race. While the BJP has thus far kept mum on the matter, the possibility of Ray vying for the Rourkela seat might raise the stakes in the high-voltage fight between ex-Union Minister Jual Oram and hockey star Dilip Tirkey for the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat. Ray, a three-time MLA and two-time Rajya Sabha member, is believed to have influence over the parliamentary seat. Being a businessman, he also has the wherewithal to gives tough time to the ruling BJD, of which he was a founder member till he fell out with Naveen Patnaik and was expelled from the regional outfit.
