The Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat is all set to witness a high-voltage battle between BJP’s seasoned politician Jual Oram, BJD’s Dilip Tirkey and Congress candidate Janardan Dehury in the 2024 elections.
Oram has already announced that 2024 will be his last elections and he will certainly try to win the Lok Sabha seat for the BJP which has set a target to win over 400 Lok Sabha seats in the country.
However, it will not be a cakewalk for Oram as the ruling BJD has roped in Hockey India president Dillip Tirkey who is also quite popular among the masses.
However, Jual Oram had defeated BJD’s Dilip Tirkey in the 2014 elections. Oram had won the seat with a margin of 18,000 plus votes.
Here is quick look at the profile of the candidates for the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat:
Jual Oram (BJP)
Born on March 22, 1961 Jual Oram is a five-time Lok Sabha MP from Odisha. Coming from a humble tribal family, Oram was first elected to Lok Sabha from Sundargarh constituency in 1998 and was re-elected the next year as well.
Oram was the first minister of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs set up by the then PM Ataj Bihari Vajpayee.
Dilip Tirkey (BJD)
Dilip Tirkey was the former captain of the Indian Hockey team and currently the president of Hockey India. He was awarded the Padma Shree in 2004.
Tirkey is the first player in the world to have played 400 international matches.
Janardan Dehury (Congress)
The Congress is also eying the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat which was reserved for the tribals in 2009.
Congress had earlier appointed Janardan Dehury, who belongs to Bhuyan community, as the district president.