Bhubaneswar: BJD leader Achyuta Samanta has announced retirement from active politics after his defeat in Odisha Lok Sabha polls.

Samanta met BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik at the latter's residence on Saturday and expressed his desire to quit politics. He also thanked Patnaik for giving him the opportunity to contest elections as BJD candidate, reports said.

Samanta said he will continue the social work, which he has been doing for the last 32 years.

Worth mentioning, BJD had fielded Samanta as its Kandhamal MP candidate. However, he lost to BJP's Sukanta Kumar Panigrahi by a margin of 21,371 votes.

While Panigrahi got 4,16,415 votes, a total of 3,95,044 votes were polled in favour of Samanta.

The founder of KIIT had successfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Kandhamal constituency on a BJD ticket by defeating BJP's Kharabela Swain.

Though he was hopeful of retaining the seat, the saffron party pulled off an upset.