BY SANJEEB KUAMR SAHOO
Before I begin, I would like to say that my parents are from Bihar’s Hajipur, but I was born in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh (my mother’s mother is from Jharkhand’s Ormanjhi), grew up in Sundargarh’s Nuagaon block, which is a few kilometres from Rourkela.
In 2011, I fell in love with a Rajput girl; I still love her, and the lady of my heart’s name is Late Miss Deepsikha Singh Rana. She came from a well-known Rajput family in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia. Her father was an army officer named Lt. Col. Jitendra Kumar Singh Rana. And I am a village boy of the caste “#Teli”.
Rourkela, where Dilip Ray has been doing politics for many years, including in #Bhubaneswar, and he is a hotelier, and after becoming very active in politics, he expanded his hotel business pan-#India and outside of the country. Interestingly, Dilip Ray’s name featured in the Jharkhand Coal Block Scam.
In 2020, a special court in #Delhi convicted former Union Minister Dilip Ray of irregularities in the award of a Jharkhand coal block in 1999.
Dilip Ray, a BJD Rajya Sabha MP, served as coal minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.
However, in April 2024, the Delhi High Court stayed the conviction of former Union minister Dilip Ray in a case involving alleged irregularities in the distribution of a coal block in Jharkhand in 1999, allowing him to run in the 2024 Odisha Assembly elections.
On October 26, 2020, he was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of Rs 10 lakh. On October 27, 2020, the Delhi High Court issued a notice to the CBI on Ray’s appeal, suspending his jail term while his appeal was pending.
Let us get to the point: Dilip Ray began his political career with Biju Patnaik’s Janata Dal at the Rourkela Municipal Elections in 1985, and he played a crucial role in the formation of #BijuPatnaik’s son Naveen Patnaik’s political party, BJD, in 1997.
However, the BJD was suspended in 2002, and while contesting as an independent candidate in the 2002 Rajya Sabha polls, he won with the support of BJD and BJP MLAs because to horse trading, but I have no evidence about 2002, and horse trading is likely to be repeated in the 2026 Rajya Sabha polls in Odisha.
I would like to conclude by saying that he was in Janta Dal, BJD, Congress, and then BJP and contested the 2014 Rourkela Assembly polls and won, then resigned and stayed away from the 2019 Rourkela Assembly polls and rejoined before the 2024 Rourkela Assembly and lost to the BJD candidate, but interestingly, he has been supporting Sundargarh Lok Sabha MP and India’s tribal Minister #JualOram since 2014, and Dilip Ray has strong command among city voters in the Rourkela Assembly seat.
Dilip Ray is technically a BJP candidate, but he is running as an independent. Since only wealthy people have the courage to run for the Rajya Sabha, he may receive the necessary votes from both BJD and Congress MLAs (according to the 2002 Rajya Sabha polls) to win the fourth seat in the Odisha Rajya Sabha polls. This is because Dilip Ray is a #wealthy politician who owns upscale hotels under the MAYFAIR Group of Hotels brand, and all the #wealthy people from Rourkela have consistently supported him.
And BJD will lose its second seat if the party does not take it seriously with a strong political strategy to get Congress MLAs’ votes, as generally seen during Rajya Sabha polls that MLAs support rich candidates and rich candidates always get support from MLAs during Rajya Sabha polls (and rich people always want Rajya Sabha seats, and everyone knows the reasons why rich people want Rajya Sabha seats), such as sitting Birmitpur MLA Rohit Joseph Tirkey (BJD), whose father, then JMM MLA George Tirkey, supported Dilip Ray in the 2002 Rajya Sabha polls.
The Rajya Sabha elections are held using a preferential voting system, in which only MLAs vote. There are 147 MLAs in the Odisha Assembly. A contender requires approximately 30 votes to win one of the four seats.
The party strength in the Assembly following the 2024 Assembly elections is as follows: BJP 82 (after by-elections), BJD 48 (after suspension of two MLAs), Congress 14, CPI(M) 1, and Independent 2. While the situation for the first three seats is fairly obvious, the fourth seat is the most intriguing and crucial. All parties are focused on the arithmetic and political calculations for this seat. With 82 votes, the BJP can easily win two seats by spending 60 votes. With 48 votes, the BJD will secure the third seat.
After that, the electoral maths for the fourth seat becomes intriguing. After the third seat, the BJP will have 22 votes (82-60) and the BJD will have 18 (48-30). That means neither will have 30 votes individually. This will make the 14 votes of the Congress, 1 of the CPI(M), and 2 of the Independents crucial.
According to the Election Commission of India’s notification, elections for four Rajya Sabha seats in #Odisha will be held on March 16.
