)
Ruling BJD today denied party tickets to seven sitting MLAs for the Odisha Assembly polls, including former Law Minister Raghunath Mohanty, who is facing dowry torture charges.
Mohanty, a prominent non-Congress leader in Balasore district and sitting MLA from Basta Assembly segment which he has represented five times in a row since 1990, has been replaced by Nityananda Pradhan.
He had been elected to the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th Odisha legislative assembly and was dropped from the ministry by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after he was accused of torture for dowry by his daughter-in-law last year.
Mohanty along with his wife was arrested from his hideout in Kolkata and the couple are on bail at present.
His daughter-in-law Barsa Sowny Choudhury had lodged an FIR against Mohanty, his wife, son Rajasree, daughter Rupasree and son-in-law Suvendu Madhual last year.
The Human Right Protection Cell of Odisha Police had filed charge sheet against all the accused persons.
Besides being minister for law, Mohanty had held charge of industries, steel and mines, parliamentary affairs, MSME, panchayati raj and IT during his long stint.
The other sitting MLAs denied BJD tickets are - Sipra Mallick (Kendrapara), Bibhuti Balabantray (Jatni), Bhagirathi Sethi (Anandpur), Subarna Nayak (Keonjhar), Rajendra Das (Dhamnagar) and Premananda Nayak (Telkoi).
Simultaneous polls will be held for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 state assembly seats in the state on April 10 and April 17.
