
Pradhan left for his native place at Raikia in the tribal dominated district soon after being released and was likely to proceed to Bhubaneswar shortly to take oath as a legislator. While all other 146 MLAs have already taken oath as members of the Legislative Assembly, Pradhan could not perform the constitutional duty as he remained inside prison. Pradhan, who was initially lodged in G Udaygiri jail, had been shifted to the district headquarters jail at Phulbani after the elections. He had defeated his nearest Congress rival Ajayanti Pradhan by over 20,000 votes in the assembly elections, results of which were announced on May 16.