BJP heavyweight Dilip Ray romped home victorious defeating BJD strongman Sarada Prasad Nayak with a comfortable margin in the prestigious Rourkela Assembly seat on Friday. This will be Ray’s comeback to the State politics after 19 years.
He beat BJD’s sitting MLA and deposed minister Nayak with over 10,500 votes. An official announcement, however, had not been made till the report was filed.
In a relief to the ruling BJD, its Minister Subrat Tarai was poised for a comfortable victory against BJP’s Jagabandhu Behera in the adjacent RN Pali Assembly segment.
Official sources said till 18th round of counting, Ray had bagged 37,823 votes against 31,901 votes secured by Nayak. Congress nominee Pravat Mohapatra, who had defeated Ray in 1995, had managed just 6,582 votes till the last reports were filed. Eight more rounds were left for counting.
Speaking to this paper, Ray thanked the people of Rourkela for electing him. “I thank the voters of Rourkela and all BJP workers for the victory. I will continue to work hard for development of the city,” he said.
Ray, who was unceremoniously ousted from the BJD 13 years back, refrained from commenting on the ruling party’s negative campaign against him.
A visibly upset Nayak said he has accepted the mandate of Rourkela voters.
“During my two terms, I did a lot of development works, but if this is the decision of voters, then I accept it,” he said.
Meanwhile, after 18 rounds of counting in RN Pali constituency, BJD Minister Subrat Tarai with 29,717 votes was comfortably placed against Ray’s protege Behera who bagged 19,175 votes. With nine more rounds to go, the Congress nominee Gajendra Tanti with 6,455 votes also faced the threat to lose his deposit.
The run-up to the election in the two prestigious seats had seen a keen contest between BJP and BJD.
Ray, who had earlier retained the Rourkela seat from 1985 to 1995 forJanata Dal, made history by winning the seat for first time on BJP ticket.