Bhubaneswar, May 29 The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday announced its candidates including a woman and a tribal leader for the election of four Rajya Sabha (RS) seats.
In a statement, BJD general secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das said BJD president Naveen Patnaik has nominated party spokesperson Sulata Deo, media advisor to the government, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj, present RS member Sasmit Patra and tribal leader Niranjan Bishi, who recently joined the party, for the Rajya Sabha.
Sulata Deo is a woman face of the party while Mangaraj is looking after media affairs and also the government.
Patra has been renominated as he is very loyal to the party and his performance in the Upper House is praised by one and all Including the Chairman. Besides, he belongs to a minority community.
Niranjan Bishi was selected as a tribal face in the western Odisha, where opposition BJP has a strong hold.
As per notifications issued by the Odisha Assembly, election for three full term RS seats and bypoll for one Rajya Sabha (RS) seat will be held on June 10 and 13, respectively.
The polls for full term seats will be held on June 10 as the tenure of three Rajya Sabha members from Odisha - N. Bhaskar Rao, Prasanna Acharya and Sasmit Patra will end on July 1.
The bypoll for another seat, which fell vacant following the resignation of Subash Singh, will be held on June 13. Singh had resigned from the seat in April after he was elected as Cuttack mayor. However, the party has not clarified who will file nomination for the bypoll.
The BJD is set to win all the four RS seats for having a strength of 113 MLAs in an Assembly of 147. The BJP and Congress with 22 and 9 seats in the Assembly do not have the numbers to win a seat.
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