Odisha: Is Naveen Set to Play Devil’s Advocate in Rajya Sabha Polls?

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections on March 16, the opposition Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) inner cracks have resurfaced on the floor of Parliament.    

The election for Rajya Sabha on March 16, 2026, does not seem to be going easy for BJD as has been made to appear. The BJD has projected two candidates, among whom is Santrupta Mishra, a former corporate honcho and now BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik’s political secretary as its first candidate. The other candidate is Dr Datteswar Hota, a well-known urologist in Odisha, who is a novice in politics.

Hota’s efforts, despite his limited equation in politics, to bring the state Congress and BJD leaders, along with the Left, under one roof to garner their votes in his favour, was laudable.     

Patnaik himself made the announcement of Mishra and Hota as BJD candidates for Rajya Sabha and expressed hope, for the latter in particular, while being assured by the Odisha Congress of its support the BJD’s second choice, who is the fourth candidate from the state in the fray.

Now, there is buzz in the political horizon, akin to a political innuendo, that may prove embarrassing for Patnaik, who may either end up eating humble pie and quietly pave the way for Dilip Ray,  ex-Union minister and a convict in a coal mining scam in the CBI court, who is contesting as an independent candidate supported by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to political analysts, although Ray seems to be projected as BJP’s purported independent candidate “but looking at the arithmetic on the board, BJP has no numbers to support Ray. So, the only way ahead for Ray is to repeat what he had done in 2002 -- get elected to the Rajya Sabha alleged unfair means”, Ritik Pramanik, a political commentator, told NewsClick.

“In simple words, one will have to resort to horse trading to win in such circumstances”, he added.

Ray, who was Union minister as a Janata Dal candidate under the late Biju Patnaik, is also the owner of a chain of hotels in India. He has a questionable political track record for his role as Union Minister of State for Coal in a major mining scam in Jharkhand, for which he was convicted by a Special CBI Court and awarded a sentence of three years in jail plus Rs 10 lakh as penalty.

Subsequently, Ray joined BJP for obvious reasons, after falling from grace in the BJD. But, in 2018, Ray quit the saffron camp. However, he did not waste any time in the blame game and kept a low profile till the dust of the alleged scam settled down.

“Like many, Ray also enjoyed the privilege to pass through BJP’s washing machine and came out a gentleman politician and tried hard to re-enter the Upper House somehow”, said Rabi Das, a veteran political analyst.

The signal was clear from the BJP central leadership of tacitly backing Ray as its third candidate. This came as a surprise for the BJD camp and a dampener for the latter’s second candidate, Hota.

“This gains credibility from the recent visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to Bhubaneswar and his stay in Ray’s star hotel in the city for less than a week before the Rajya Sabha polls”, observed Paramanik.

Obviously, for the BJD supremo the news about Ray being supported as BJP’s undeclared independent candidate has come as a huge challenge – Patnaik has to keep quiet, leaving BJD legislators to vote according to their conscience, or close his eyes to what Ray has in his mind.

It goes without saying that Naveen Patnaik has sincerely remained a trusted supporter of BJP throughout the past 24 years, and if such a situation arises now, during the polls for the Upper House, then this time, too, the BJD chief is likely to sacrifice Hota than take the saffron party by the horn.

The writer is a senior freelance journalist based in Odisha, with over 40 years’ experience in the profession.