Bhubaneswar, June 9: After facing defeat, BJD leader and former Kandhamal MP Achyuta Samanta today announced retirement from active politics.
He met party supremo Naveen Patnaik on Saturday and expressed his desire to quit politics. He also thanked Patnaik for giving him ticket to contest the polls.
Samanta, founder of KIIT and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), said that he will continue the social work which he has been doing for the last 32 years.
Notably, Samanta contested the Lok Sabha Elections from Kandhamal on a BJD ticket. However, he lost to BJP’s Sukant Kumar Panigrahi by a margin of over 21,000 votes.
He had successfully secured the seat in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.