Amid BJP-BJD bonhomie in Odisha, ED raid on an MLA plays the dampener: Who is Prafulla Samal?

Simultaneous raids were conducted at 10 places, including at the residences of the senior BJD MLA in Bhubaneswar and Bhadrak. Briefing reporters at his Bhadrak residence late Thursday, Samal denied all allegations against him. Though the ED has yet to issue any statement on the raids, sources said the searches were conducted based on a report registered by Bhadrak Police in 2016 about “mismanagement”, which was initially closed but reopened some years down the line. A case related to the allegation is currently sub-judice in the Orissa High Court.

Samal, 77, has been elected to the Assembly six times since 1990. With a law degree, he joined active politics in the early 1970s while working as a part-time faculty at M S Law College in Cuttack from 1982 to 1985. He was also associated with the trade union movement as a key functionary of the Hind Mazdoor Sabha, which was affiliated with the Socialists.

Samal was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1990 from Bhadrak on a Janata Dal ticket and represented the seat till 2004. After his defeat to Congress candidate Naren Pallai in 2004, he switched his constituency to the nearby Bhandaripokhari in 2009, which he won for the BJD since then.

A soft-spoken loyalist of Naveen Patnaik and his father Biju, the BJD founding member was rewarded with a ministerial berth after winning his third term in 2009, with the Odisha CM giving him crucial portfolios such as Panchayati Raj and Information and Public Relations. Subsequently, he also handled departments such as Women and Child Development, as well as Culture and Tourism.

The MLA was among five legislators Patnaik dropped in August 2012, when he reshuffled his Cabinet months after an alleged aborted coup by then Rajya Sabha MP Pyarimohan Mohapatra, who was once a key advisor to the CM.

Though Samal managed to get a party ticket in 2014, he had to wait for three more years till 2017 to again get a ministerial berth, with key portfolios such as Women and Child Development, MSME and Social Security. The BJD again roped in Samal in 2019 after then Odisha Congress president Niranjan Patnaik chose Bhandaripokhari as his second constituency. He lost to Samal by 9,000 votes.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Prayas Kanti was also involved in Bhadrak politics and is a BJD ticket aspirant in the coming polls. Though the BJD has yet to react to the development, party insiders said if the central agency steps up action, it may jeopardise the father and son’s ticket aspirations.