Two Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidates and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee backed by Naveen Patnaik‘s BJD were on Friday elected unopposed to the Upper House of the Parliament Rajya Sabha from Odisha.
Returning Officer BP Mishra declared Biju Janata Dal’s Amar Patnaik and Sasmit Patra and Ashwini Vaishnav of BJP elected to the Rajya Sabha. ‘All three candidates have been elected to Rajya Sabha unopposed’, BP Mishra said.
The BJD had extended its support to Ashwini Vaishnav of Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Rajya Sabha Seats in the State fell vacant after four MPs of the upper House resigned after they elected to the 17th Lok Sabha or to the State Assembly. The MPs who resigned from the Upper House are – Achyuta Samant, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, and PK Deb.
The 4 Rajya Sabha seats of the state were fell vacant, the Poll Commission had only issued the notification for filling up three Rajya Sabha Seats. Sources claimed that the tenure of the fourth seat was about to end in a year. The by-elections on the Rajya Sabha seats are slated for July 5.
Looking at the MPs, Amar Patnaik is an IT Cell Chief of Naveen Patnaik’s party. He had joined BJD last year after resigning from the post of the accountant general of Odisha.
While the second nominee, Sasmit Patra is a party’s spokesperson and an academician.
Earlier BJD extending support to BJP candidates created a huge controversy with Congress accusing Ashwini Vaishnav of BJP of having links with illegal mining activities and the DQ (discretionary quota) scam in Odisha.
ALSO READ:
- PM Modi, Rajnath Singh, others remember Former PM PV Narasimha Rao on his 98th Birth Anniversary
- Jagan’s govt declares Former CM Chandrababu Naidu’s residence illegal; serves notice to vacate
- Amit Shah moves a motion in LS to extend President’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir; promises to hold polls by year end