Bhubaneswar, March 16: With the Rajya Sabha Elections concluded on Monday, Industrialist Dilip Ray has conquered the 4th coveted seat with astounding support of BJD and Congress Legislators.
Ray who was a BJP supported candidate, defeated the BJD-Congress backed candidate Dr Datteswar Hota with as many as …. votes.
On the other hand, ruling BJP’s official candidates Manmohan Samal & Sujeet Kumar won the Rajya Sabha race. Similarly, Dr. Santrupt Mishra, official candidate of BJD secured the Rajya Sabha seat for BJD with bagging as many as 30 votes casted by the BJD Legislators.
Dilip Ray’s political journey begins in 1985 when he was elected as the chairman of the then Rourkela Notified Area Council. In the same year he was elected as MLA from Rourkela Constituency during 1985–90 and was re-elected in the year 1990.
Subsequently, Ray served as Minister of Industries in the Janata Dal Government (1990–95) in the Biju Patnaik’s cabinet.
Ray was nominated to the upper house of Parliament, i.e., Rajya Sabha in 1996 and continued to be the member of the house for two consecutive terms (1996–2002; 2002–2008).
As a parliamentarian, he held several ministry portfolios and was a member of different parliamentary committees.
He also played a notable role in the foundation of the Biju Janata Dal(BJD) as Ray considered Biju Patnaik as his mentor.
Ray also served as member of Odisha Legislative Assembly representing the Rourkela Assembly Constituency before he left politics in the year 2018.
Today’s victory of Dilip Ray in the Rajya Sabha elections, will be his third innings in the Upper Chamber of the Parliament representing Odisha.
