Dilip Ray
Dilip Ray (born 9 January 1954) is an Indian politician and hotelier from the state of Odisha.During his last days, Biju Patnaik had expressed his desire to form a regional party for which he had consultations with several national leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani, and Pramod Mahajan but could not effectuate it because of his untimely demise.Ray has traveled to over twenty countries across the globe and his other hobbies include interior decoration and gardening.Promoting Odia culture and dialect has always been his esteemed priority which is evident from the fact that the 80% of the employees of the group founded by him are from Odisha.[2] 1) Chairman, Rourkela Municipality 2) Member, Odisha Legislative Assembly (1985–1990) 3) Member, Odisha Legislative Assembly (1990–1995) 4) Minister of State, Industries (15 Mar 1990 – 24 Jul 1990) 5) Minister of State, Industries, excluding textiles and handlooms (24 Jul 1990 – 2 Jan 1991) 6) Minister, Industries, excluding textiles and handlooms (2 Jan 1991 – 15 Mar 1995) 7) Elected to Rajya Sabha (1996–2002) 8) Union MoS (I/C) of the Ministry of Animal Husbandry and Dairying 9) Union MoS (I/C) of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries 10) Union MoS (I/C) of the Ministry of Coal 11) Union MoS of Parliamentary Affairs 12) Union MoS of Ministry of Steel 13) Elected to Rajya Sabha for the second term (2002–2008) 14) Member, Consultative Committee for the Civil Aviation 15) Member, Committee on Labour and Welfare 16) Member Committee on Labour 17) Member, Odisha Legislative Assembly (2014–2019)