TNI Bureau: Former Kandhamal MP and founder of KIIT & KISS, Achyuta Samanta has retired from active politics after his defeat from the same seat.

Samanta reportedly met BJD president Naveen Patnaik yesterday at Naveen Niwas and expressed his willingness to retire from the active politics. He also thanked Patnaik for the opportunity he got to contest Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha elections on BJD tickets.

Samanta also thanked the people of Kandhamal for the support and blessing he received from them and assured to continue the social work he has been doing since 32 years.

Notably, Samanta who had won the 2019 election from Kandhamal on the Biju Janata Dal ticket was repeated by the party in 2024 from the same seat. However, he lost to Sushanta Kumar Panigrahi of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Samanta polled 3,95,044 votes and lost by a margin of 21,371 votes. Panigrahi on the other hand clinched as many as 4,16,415 votes.

Prior to contesting the 2019 election, he was the member of the Rajya Sabha after joining BJD in 2018.