Bhubaneswar: All the three nominees from Odisha – BJD’s Amar Patnaik and Sasmit Patra and BJP’s Ashwini Vaishnaw were elected unanimously to the Rajya Sabha in the bypolls that were conducted here Friday. It should be stated here that Vaishnaw was elected with the support of the ruling Biju Janata Dal.
Odisha Assembly secretary Dasarathi Satpathy, who is the returning officer for the Rajya Sabha bypolls, declared the three as elected unopposed
Elections to the Rajya Sabha seats had to be conducted as they had fallen vacant with BJD’s Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik getting elected to the Lok Sabha and Odisha State Assembly respectively.
The BJD decided to nominate its IT Cell Chairman Patnaik and spokesperson Patra to the Rajya Sabha in place of Samanta and Deb respectively. On the other hand Vaishnaw was nominated to the seat left vacant by the Soumya Ranjan.
PNN