Srikant Jena: Former Cabinet Minister Expected To Help Congress In Securing Balasore Constituency (image:facebook.com/srikantjena1950)

Former Cabinet Minister Srikant Kumar Jena is contesting in the forthcoming seventh phase of the Lok Sabha election is expected to help Congress secure victory in Odisha”s Balasore constituency.

The 73-year-old was a former Zoology professor and is now a full-time politician. In his political life, he served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the Gujral ministry and Deve Gowda ministry. The Congress have fielded Jena in a coastal constituency as he had won twice from Cuttack in 1989 and 1991, and once from the Kendrapada seat.

Jena was represented the Balasore parliamentary constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha. In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Jena was defeated from Balasore.

In 2019, Congress had expelled him for “anti-party” activities. Following his exit from Congress, Jena launched – Samajika Nyay Abhiyan, a non-political platform that advocated for a social justice movement in Odisha. Now, on May 6, after five years Srikant Jena rejoined Congress at a press conference at the party headquarters in New Delhi.

Jena began his political career in Janata Party and became an MLA in the Odisha Assembly in 1977 from Bari in Jaipur district. He represented Bari till 1989. Later, he switched to Congress and became one of the key faces of the party in the state.

In his political career, Jena has served as the Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Statistics & Programme Implementation in the Manmohan Singh-led II UPA government, and the Union Minister of State for Small Scale Industry, Agro and Rural Industries in the VP Singh government.

Odisha’s Balasore constituency is going to witness a three-way electoral battle between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls on Saturday.

(This story is part of a Timeline. internship project.)