Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, May 29: The Biju Janta Dal (BJD) announced candidates for the four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha on Sunday.
Dr. Sasmit Patra, a sitting Rajya Sabha MP, has been entrusted with a second term by the party. Patra, a lawyer and professor, was originally introduced to the Rajya Sabha in June of this year. He was named the party’s main whip and also serves as the organization’s national spokesperson. Patra was the first member of his party to be appointed to the Rajya Sabha’s deputy chairman panel for over 25 years.
Notably, senior parliamentarian and former Rajya Sabha MP Prasanna Acharya has not been given a ticket for a repeat term this time in the Upper House.
BJD has nominated its woman candidate Sulata Deo for Rajya Sabha. Deo has had a long association with BJD and has served in various capacities in the women’s wing of the party. Deo, who has never been an MLA in the past, will be marking her debut in Parliament with this Rajya Sabha nomination.
Prasanna Acharya, N Bhaskar Rao, and Sasmit Patra, three BJD Rajya Sabha MPs, will finish their terms on July 1. On June 10, elections for these Rajya Sabha seats will be held.
Subhas Singh, who was elected as the mayor of Cuttack, resigned from the fourth Rajya Sabha seat, and an election for this seat will be held on June 13.
The BJD has 122 members in the 147-seat Odisha Assembly, putting it in a strong position to win all four seats. In the Lok Sabha, the party has 12 members while in the Rajya Sabha, it has nine.
