Bhubaneswar: June 24: BJD’s IT Cell Chairman & spokesperson Amar Patnaik and spokesperson Sasmit Patra filed their nomination papers before the Returning Officer and Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA)’s Secretary here on Monday for vacant Rajya Sabha seats.
Also, BJP candidate Ashwini Baishnab also filed his nomination papers.
BJD supremo-cum-Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Parliamentary Affairs minister Bikram Keshari Arukh, Ministers, BJD MLAs, were present while Amar Patnaik and Sasmit Patra filed nominations.
BJD-backed BJP candidate Ashwini Baishnab filed his nomination and during his filing of nomination papers, senior BJP MLAs Pradipta Naik, Jaynarayan Mishra and other BJP leaders were present.
The three Rajya Sabha seats which fell vacant were held by BJD’s Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. While Samanta was elected from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, Deb and Patnaik won from Aul and Khandapada Assembly segments in the recently held elections.
Another Rajya Sabha member won the recently concluded election as Lok Sabha MP, which also remained vacant. But, his left-out tenure as the Rajya Sabha member is less for which the by-poll is of no need.
