Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD in Odisha on Friday announced the names of BJD IT cell chief Amar Patnaik, party spokesperson Sasmit Patra and former IAS officer Aswini Baishnab as its candidates for by-elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in the State.
Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik announced Patnaik, Patra and Baishnab’s names for the by-poll which is slated to be held on July 5.
The by-elections were necessitated following the election of party leaders – Achyuta Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik – to Lok Sabha and Assembly recently.
While Samanta was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kandhamal, both Deb and Patnaik resigned from Rajya Sabha after they were elected to the State Assembly from the Aul and Khandapada in the recently concluded elections.
Samanta and Patnaik’s term in the Upper House was set to end in April 2024 while the tenure of Deb was up to July, 2022.
Going by the number of MLAs in the Assembly, the BJD would comfortably retain all the three Rajya Sabha seats. BJD has 111 MLAs in the 147-member Assembly.
