BHUBANESWAR: Senior Congress leader and Jatni MLA Suresh Kumar Routray on Monday announced that he will not contest the next election.
Talking to mediapersons here, the senior Congress leader said that his son Sidharth Routray will take his place and fight the polls. He made it clear that his son will contest on a Congress ticket. “There is no question of my son contesting from any other political party,” he said and adding that he will continue to work for party organisation.
Claiming that Congress has good prospects of coming to power in Odisha and in the country, Routray said that Rahul Gandhi will be the next prime minister while Sarat Pattanayak will be the chief minister of Odisha. There was speculation over Routray contesting the next election after he was issued a show cause notice by the party following the defeat in Padampur by-election.